IDENTITY AND PERSONAL CHOICE OF A TEENAGE STUDENT IN A. D’AVENIА’S NOVEL «THE ROLL СALL»

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of communication between teenage students and a teacher, who became the centre of the narrative, monologuing or dialoguing to show the current problems of school education not only in Italy. The study is based on the novel «Roll Call» (2020) by the well-known contemporary Italian writer and educator A. D’Avenia, which has not previously been the subject of study in Ukrainian literary criticism. The writer aimed to trace the different fates of traumatised teenage characters, the process of their development into fullyfledged personalities and their recovery from adolescent trauma thanks to the pedagogical skills of their teacher Homer Romeo. It has been emphasised that with timely help from their teacher, all so-called ‘problem teenagers’ are capable of overcoming adolescent trauma and going on to become successful, finding themselves through love and acceptance by others. Teacher Romeo appears as an innovative educator, where his physical disability – blindness – is symbolic and helps him to listen to and hear better his students. He considers it necessary not only to teach the basics of natural sciences, but also to get to know each of his teenage students by name, their tone of voice, and their personal characteristics. So Romeo uses the pedagogical technique of ‘roll call,’ giving each student the opportunity to express themselves, emphasising the name as a synonym for personality. It has been stated that A. d'Avenia promoted the formation of a positive image of the Teacher with a capital letter using the example of Homer’s character who, applying a personalised approach to each student (‘roll call’as synonymising name and personality), contributes to the restoration trust in the ‘teacher-student’ relationship. The novel «Roll Call» demonstrates that school education needs to be updated and changed as we move into the 21st century, introducing the concept of ‘school as joy’ through empathy, care, and the search for solutions and overcoming the problems of adolescents.