Canonical Literature: Queensland Senior English Curriculum

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(PowerPoint slide 1) Imagine for a moment that you couldn’t read, and that the current sentence makes no more sense than this (PowerPoint slide 2: “Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first…” – William Shakespeare Macbeth). Unfortunately, that is the experience of 774 million people around the world today, for whom basic reading is anything but an open book (‘Global Lingo Blog’ 2018) (Good Reading Magazine 2013). Reading is a fundamental aspect that underpins all of our lives. Fortunately, reading is an essential element of the Australian English Curriculum. It is currently a requirement of the Queensland Senior English Syllabus for a range of literature to be studied in all Queensland Schools, …show more content…

Dominant discourses such as power, gender and class are generally evident in canonical literature, and these discourses determine how individuals, groups, events and places are represented. There are a range of attitudes and beliefs around the value of senior English students studying canonical literature. The Federal Minister for Education is currently calling for more classic literature to be taught in Senior English classrooms. Members of ACARA we must challenge the Federal Minister’s call to include more canonical literature within the syllabus, as the current syllabus adequately represent twenty-first century classrooms and society, and has no need for more canonical literature. (PowerPoint Slide 3) To …show more content…

The play ‘Macbeth’ written by William Shakespeare, tells the story of a brave Scottish general, Macbeth, who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that he will succeed to become the king of Scotland. Macbeth becomes consumed with his own ambition and is prompted into action by his wife, seizing kingship. However, Macbeth is overcome with his own guilt and fear, which eventually leads to his death. Therefore, Shakespeare’s Macbeth embodies the discourse of fate versus free will and the corruption of unchecked power (‘Macbeth’ 2018). Through Macbeth, the reader can evaluate the influence that this discourse has upon the lives of individual characters. Sally Law (2012), an English teacher and journalist for the Guardian, argues that students can learn valuable life lessons from the discourses and themes explored within classic literature. Overall, Frankenstein and other canonical literature allow students to analyse how universal themes have evolved over time and further allows the reader to evaluate the effect that particular discourses have upon an individual’s

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