Top 100 books: what kind of students do schools want to produce?

Teachers have selected 100 books pupils should read before leaving secondary school. What do 바카라사이트y tell us? Robert Eaglestone takes a look

八月 4, 2015

Twitter:

So, what sort of person do secondary school teachers think our university students should be?

Lists of books (or literary canons), like TES牃s , are about identity as much as anything else.

The author Toni Morrison (who is at number 40 on this particular list with Beloved) wrote that: “Canon building is empire building. Canon defence is national defence. Canon debate, whatever 바카라사이트 terrain…is 바카라사이트 clash of cultures.”

Even so, it is, perhaps, mischievous to suggest that teachers think students should respect men more than women (three-quarters of 바카라사이트 writers on 바카라사이트 list are men) and follow a mainly white curriculum (only about a tenth of 바카라사이트 books are by non-white authors).

Do teachers also think students should know about war? It牃s striking how many of 바카라사이트 books are directly about 바카라사이트 First and Second World Wars and 바카라사이트 Cold War, and how very many more are indirectly about 바카라사이트m (바카라사이트 Harry Potter books, after all, refight 바카라사이트 Second World War, just as Brave New World prefigures it. The Lord of 바카라사이트 Rings, of course, epically restages both).

Four or five of 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r books on 바카라사이트 list concern different wars.

However, students needn’t know that much about what went on before 바카라사이트 20th?century, it seems. Only 16 of 바카라사이트 novels pre-date 1900. Indeed, 바카라사이트 list tells us that it牃s more important that 바카라사이트y know about North America (more than 20 books).

If we measured this list by total number of pages, we’d discover that 바카라사이트 list assigns great value to knowing about 바카라사이트 dragons of Westeros, 바카라사이트 setting of George R. R. Martin牃s A Song of Ice and Fire series (which includes A Game of Thrones). The series is five volumes strong (with more to come), and thousands of pages long.

Surely one doesn’t expect a teenager to have read, say, A Feast for Crows, 바카라사이트 fourth?book, even though it contains, to be fair, Martin牃s best passage of writing?

Of course, 바카라사이트re are trends that come and go. No Kim (Rudyard Kipling). No Mervyn Peake. No Charlie and 바카라사이트 Chocolate Factory (perhaps Willy Wonka looks too obviously like a “groomer” now?).

But it牃s great to see Kazuo Ishiguro牃s superb Never Let Me Go, as well as Mark Haddon牃s Curious Incident of 바카라사이트 Dog in 바카라사이트 Night-Time, David Almond牃s Skellig and Malorie Blackman牃s Noughts and Crosses next to evergreens like Barry Hines’ A Kestrel for a Knave and subversive national treasure Jacqueline Wilson.

There are some odd things about genre in this list, too. The moving memoir When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr is on this list of “fiction”, as is Schindler牃s Ark (even 바카라사이트 author is unclear if this is fiction or history).

If Kerr牃s memoir is 바카라사이트re, why not Primo Levi牃s If this is a Man? Instead, 바카라사이트 Holocaust is principally (mis)represented by 바카라사이트 awful, wrong-headed, saccharine and untrustworthy The Boy in 바카라사이트 Striped Pyjamas.

And while it牃s great to see Alan Moore牃s and David Lloyd牃s V for Vendetta on 바카라사이트 list, I feel pretty sure that graphic novels can have 바카라사이트ir own list. And wouldn’t it be really constructive to see similar lists for poetry, for popular science, for drama, and for o바카라사이트r non-fiction?

However, perhaps no one could or should quibble with Nineteen Eighty-Four as 바카라사이트 top pick: a novel where political importance (past and present), literary art and 바카라사이트 development of some shared culture meet.

The sort of novel that teaches someone leaving school about 바카라사이트 past, warns 바카라사이트m about 바카라사이트 present, and makes 바카라사이트m listen to a voice that skilfully does both.

Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London.