1 / 9

The Literary Canon

The Literary Canon. Mike Fleming. Outline. Arguments for Arguments against Underlying issues and values. What do we mean by ‘canon’?. Official specification of texts, authors genres De facto canon – tacit agreement. Justification for canon. Notions of ‘quality’ Cultural heritage

lynn
Download Presentation

The Literary Canon

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Literary Canon Mike Fleming

  2. Outline • Arguments for • Arguments against • Underlying issues and values

  3. What do we mean by ‘canon’? • Official specification of texts, authors genres • De facto canon – tacit agreement

  4. Justification for canon • Notions of ‘quality’ • Cultural heritage • Issues of national identity • Ensuring representation

  5. Arguments against • Challenge to absolute judgements • Insensitive to diverse nature of society • Need for curriculum to be appropriate Associated with traditional pedagogy based on authority • Curriculum not just about specifying content

  6. Underlying issues • Definitions of literature • Conceptions of reading • Judgements about literature

  7. ‘Democratic’ canon • Prevents de facto canon being left to chance • Ensures entitlement • Seeks balance

  8. Some questions for consideration • Does the specified canon leave sufficient flexibility for teachers and pupils to exercise some choice? • Are there mechanisms for regularly reviewing the literary curriculum? • Are teachers involved in discussions about the appropriate choices of text and authors? • Is there a sufficient balance between national texts and texts from other cultures?

  9. Does the specified curriculum pay sufficient attention to process as well as content? • Does the curriculum take account of the need to engage pupils’ interests in wider reading? • Is the definition of ‘text’ sufficiently broad to represent contemporary culture?

More Related