The teaching of literature

1. The teaching of literature Irene Pieper Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg Symposion Deutschdidaktik Strasbourg, 17/10/06

2. Aspects • Literary education and the notion of „literarische Bildung“ • Curriculum developments and central purposes of literary education • Primary and secondary education: From learning with literature to learning about literature? • Canon and criteria of text selection • Reading literature, reading literacy and competences • Reading literature, assessment and „literarische Bildung“

3. Literarische Bildung CULTURE – culture Canon diverse cultural forms Notion of elite Participation in cultural life Personal development and enrichment within society Domain of social subjectivity cultural techniques reading content form literary history media Teaching literature ?! meaningfulness

4. Curriculum developments since the late 1970s • Conception of language: pragmatics; communication • Diversification in literary studies • Conception of text: literary texts, pragmatic texts; other media • Focus on learning / the learner • Shift: encourage students to read / reading for personal enrichment in context

5. Primary and secondary education: From learning with literature to learning about literature? • Primary school: learning to read, arts, ethics • Secondary education: traces of literary studies • Adequate reception of literary texts?

6. Canon and criteria of text selection • Critique of the notion of canon • Exemplary texts • Criteria: students‘ interests; introduction to different genres / to literary history; themes; pluralism; pragmatic reasons..

7. Reading literature, reading literacy and competences • Reading literacy – literary competences? • Progression in interpreting literary texts? • Scaling? • Concepts of competences – theoretical framework / branch of literary studies

8. Reading literature, assessment and literarische Bildung • Problems of assessment • Exemplary texts • Context knowledge • Tension between general aims of education and operationalisation of competences, evaluation

9. Outlook • Double route: reading literacy – culture of reading • LE and foreign languages in dialogue • Cross-cultural perspectives

10. Key Questions • How can the specific educational benefit of dealing with literature be laid down in a European framework? • How can literature be addressed within an LE-framework so as to acknowledge different national traditions? • How can literature be addressed within an LE-framework so that both cultural memory and the present cultural diversity are reflected?