Deconolisation of literature curriculum

Milest0ne

I can appreciate Austen in small doses but I could never like the Brontes. I remember having a nightmare when we had to read Jayne Eyre ( did I spell that right?) in English lit.

Have you read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë? Often referred to as the first feminist novel. Interesting narrative style and form.

Callistemon21

^It's about a university which has a one year course to study a particular author^

Remind me not to apply for that course.
A whole year on one author - whichever author, Austen, Dickens, Morrison it must become tedious surely?

I suppose a year of Shakespeare could be enjoyable, such variety!

It’s one module - a couple of hours a week contact time, as well as the reading of the texts and the associated research in the students’ own time. That’s in the context of probably nine modules plus a dissertation on the course. I don’t think the degree will have been particularly skewed towards either Austen or Morrison, whichever was chosen. It would be odd if students of literature couldn’t maintain that level of commitment (and I think it is an option anyway).

How does this pass for news? Is nothing happening in Stirling these days?

Just a note
Beloved by Toni Morrison is 99p on Kindle today 11:4:22. I don’t know how long for.

123kitty

How clever did it make a couple of posters feel to point out a spelling error in the original post? As long as we all understood the post - it was pointless - it may even put someone less confident from contributing.

IMO it’s one thing to correct basic mistakes such as it’s/its, your/you’re, which are very common on GN - and I never have.

To me it’s a somewhat different thing for someone who says she’s a teacher of English, to spell the name of such a well-known author wrongly. (Whether she enjoys that author’s work or not!)

Whoever said Jane was subversive and witty, I do so agree - for her time. Despite her own father being a rector, she evidently enjoyed ridiculing the clergy, or showing them up as no better than anyone else, not to mention a decided lack of reverence for ghastly old autocrats like Lady Catherine.

I’ve recently re-read Mrs Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters, and the level of general reverence* she portrays towards anyone with a title, is very noticeable.
*Though perhaps ‘obsequiousness’ might be a better word!

For goodness' sake! It's one module of an English course. We don't know what else students are studying for the rest of their degree course. This sounds far more interesting than some of the stuff I was studying 60 years ago under a desiccated professor who considered anything post-Henry James to be 'barbaric'.

It's about a university which has a one year course to study a particular author

Remind me not to apply for that course.
A whole year on one author - whichever author, Austen, Dickens, Morrison it must become tedious surely?

I suppose a year of Shakespeare could be enjoyable, such variety!

happycatholicwife1

Urmstongran

Its more about virtue signalling and Scottish de-Anglicization.

Oh, Urmstongran, how right you are. Well done you.

She's completely wrong.

It's about a university which has a one year course to study a particular author. The authors studied change each year. It's not sinister. It's not decolonisation (or decolonialisation). It's jut what they do.

It's been explained several times. ?

I can appreciate Austen in small doses but I could never like the Brontes. I remember having a nightmare when we had to read Jayne Eyre ( did I spell that right?) in English lit.

I had to read books I disliked at school; some Dickens, Trollope etc but enjoyed the same books when serialised on TV.
I did enjoy Shakespeare and Austen.

My dislike of some of the required reading didn't stop me going to the library as a teenager and devouring books by Jean Plaidy, Dennis Wheatley, Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, Neville Shute, Arthur C Clarke.
None of those were on the school list!

Who defines great literature?
If it's not enjoyable and a hard slog why are children forced to read it for GCSE?

'A' level yes, when they're a bit older and can read and analyse more profound works.

I generally resist being told by celebrities what I ought to like and what the "best ever" is. Then I thought maybe I was being unreasonable and read Beloved. I rated it the worst book I have ever read. I thought it was directionless (literally). To me, it was like taking a trip without a road map. The punctuation and phrasing made it lurch along, then suddenly stop, then ramble somewhere else. Also, I was absolutely sick to my stomach when I read some of her more vivid descriptions of physical things in the book. To me, it was a case of The Emperor's New clothes.

Madashell, try The Bluest Eye next. You will sob. I've seen students cry while we're reading it. Morrison was amazing. Her non fiction / analytical writing Whiteness and the Literary Imagination is pretty amazing too.

Kryptonite, not at all disenchanted. There are so many books I love, I can't be bothered to waste time on those I don't like, including Austen. And of course I express an opinion to my students. I don't expect them to share it. I don't like Dickens, but about 1/3 of the children I teach quite like him. Having a preference doesn't stop me teaching the curriculum. But the UK English curriculum now is very limited thanks to the influence of Michael Gove as education secretary a few years ago. So many wonderful texts we're now not allowed to teach.

In the words of Neil Gaiman,

Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian ‘improving’ literature. You’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant.

Urmstongran

Its more about virtue signalling and Scottish de-Anglicization.

Oh, Urmstongran, how right you are. Well done you.

I read all of Jane Austen when I was around 16. Adored her books. Also the Bronte sisters. But also adored Gerald Durrell, John le Carre. I also loved Beezer, Beano comics, Jackie magazine, Horse & Hound. And the odd newspaper!
There was no social media and tv was limited. So just read a lot of everything. Which is no bad thing. There should be no judgment in what you like to read. Or if you choose not to read much at all.

its rubbish,Jane Austen will still be on the curriculum in Stirling Uni ..according to my cousin who teaches there .Its half a story twisted by the press

As a reader who devours books at 3/4 a week, I truly don’t know why any author is “studied “.
She reads 3/4 books a week!!!!????
Yes I do. All from a charity shop who charge 30p for paperbacks. They have a much better selection than any local library and I’ve come across some truly well written interesting novels which I don’t part with. Although most go on to other charity shops I must admit.

And I have definitely seen thread titles that have been edited by GNHQ.

But eazybee, you didn't correct the title of the thread and the person who did made a joke about the spelling.

No.
When titles to threads are misspelt they are extremely irritating, because once posted they cannot be corrected and frequently remain on the forum for days and days, sometimes weeks, and are impossible to ignore.
As the thread concerns English literature, it should be even more important to check.

How clever did it make a couple of posters feel to point out a spelling error in the original post? As long as we all understood the post - it was pointless - it may even put someone less confident from contributing.

You mean to say you couldn't finish Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening, at approx 96 pages? How you have missed out. I do hope you haven't passed on your personal dislikes to impressionable students. I forbid the use of the word 'boring' with the students I work with. You sound rather disenchanted with your own subject. What a shame.

My grammar skul Eng Lit classes did for me with any Shakespeare, most poetry, and being told what book to read. I managed to get. Low grade just about pass in my O-level in the subject without reading the texts through.

I love a good story and good use of language, and love coming across a different author (charity shop buy).

I am currently re-reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved; the writing is exquisite - I can hear the voices so clearly. The storyline is utterly heart-breaking; I read it with a lump in my throat and wet eyes. A stunning book.

I love Austen, and did at 18. I think she is subversive and witty. I think the only Morrison works I have read have been magic realism, which I have always disliked, although to be fair I don't think I have read many.

trisher

I see the spelling police are out again!
I love Austen but Morrison will be much better for a one year uni course. Perhaps some of the students will come to read Austen as they grow older when they will appreciate her more.

Sorry but my 16 year old granddaughter loves Jane Austen but struggled with Morrison, both have their place but I don’t think you need to be more mature to read JA

I found my initial enthusiasm for any literature being taught matched the teaching of it. Federico García Lorca didn’t arouse much interest either in the tutor nor the group, whereas Germinal by Zola had us all gripped, even in French Lit. I liked Jane Austen, but I prefer to watch her books, whereas other A level texts like The Go Between were more appealing, maybe because the teacher found them so.

Nyman1962

I'm not quite sure what deconolisation means.
Decolonisation perhaps?

ha you did it too!
try decolonialisation!!