The Literary Canon

By the end of the year, thousands of students are ready to throw their copies of Shakespeare into a bonfire, frustrated from analysing the complicated and often confusing language of classics. Some argue that an excessive amount of classics build an angry rage within them and that they should read modern books instead. I say; let students read both. The canon definitely has a place in the 21st century classroom, the literary canon consists of a wide range of texts denoted as “the most influential in shaping western culture.” Even though classic books afford students the opportunity to understand, analyse and evaluate language quite different from their own, schools should strive to find a greater balance between contemporary and classic books

By far the most fascinating aspect of reading classic novels is the life lessons we can grow from just reading a book that is decades old. If we didn’t read and study texts from the past, and only looked to the best seller list, how would we know of our evolution? Understanding a story through the experiences of a character, decades old, enables us to feel what it could have been like and help us consider the impact of events, significant or otherwise, on ordinary people. Gaining a broad view of society, and through the eyes of another, fosters understanding, tolerance and empathy and the value of these capacities cannot be under-estimated in today’s world. For example, the gothic novel “Frankenstein” expresses the theme of humanity through curiosity and mistakes. Curiosity drives the character Victor to create life, which ultimately results in being a huge mistake. This 1800’s novel teaches students that your actions always have consequences, like how victor strives for power and immediately back fires by creating a monster. The Shakespearean novel “Macbeth” also

Structures, trends in punctuation and in the way we speak have evolved through the ages and being aware of these developments really helps us to understand better, language in its current context. Reading Shakespearean can challenge students in a good way and expand their vocabulary. Members of ACARA, a big mistake is forcing students to read too many of these different-languaged novels, this results in a Shakespearean bonfire so keep a balanced variety of contemporary and classic books, as contemporary books contain language that is more relevant to student’s daily life. Words and their usage are constantly evolving, and contemporary literature is able to teach students an expansive knowledge of modern