Keeping the Classics

The first year I taught Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I paired it with Chinua Achebe's "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness" in an attempt to complicate the “classic” text and question its place in our curriculum. When asked if they thought it should be studied in school, many of my students answered yes: it seemed valuable because of the writing, the challenge to imperialism, and the opportunity for critical analysis. As is often the case, the students had raised excellent points.  In a study on effective culturally relevant practices in AP English, Johnson (2011) includes testimony from Dr. Valentino who believes in pairing "classics" with counternarratives to engage students in "rigorous intellectual endeavors" (p. 119). For example, Valentino pairs Heart of Darkness with Ellison's Invisible Man and makes a counterpoint between Faulkner and Morrison (p. 119) to explore manipulative renderings of race, class, gender, and more.

Similarly, Borsheim-Black, Carlin, Macaluso, and Petrone (2014) argue that it is precisely a text's presence in the English literary canon that makes it an ideal tool for critical literacy (p. 124). They make an argument for "reading between the lines to expose and interrupt embedded, dominant narratives, power dynamics, and perceived normalcy espoused by and hidden in the text[s], including [their] inclusion in school curricula" (p. 125). This critical analysis can aid students in examining how beliefs are developed (p. 125), and assignments that ask them to apply this critical learning to a social action encourage students to see literature and analysis as valuable beyond the classroom (p. 131). 

One possible example of a social action product can be seen in Chang's (2020) article in which he reviews Antigone in Ferguson, a staging of Antigone by a predominantly Black cast that evokes the death and treatment of Michael Brown while likening Creon to then presidential candidate Donald Trump. With this reconfiguring of a classic text as an example, Chang asserts that teachers can "cultivate an artistic boldness that asserts a dissident voice using the cultural capital of the reigning establishment" (pp. 65-66). While none of these authors refute the importance of centering marginalized perspectives and including diverse texts, they do reject a push to remove all "classic" texts as they allow us to analyze the ideals they've been used to perpetuate. 

I have included resources that have shaped my thinking on how to choose books to include in curriculum as well as reading lists to help diversify my shelves on the Creating Local Canons page.