(Under)mining the canon: engaging Alberta high school students in the value(s) of literature
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Abstract
This thesis explores the issues surrounding the teaching of English to high school students in the province of Alberta. Its central premise is that high school students studying academic English are increasingly skeptical about the value of literature, and subsequently lack engagement with the subject area. In support of this contention is a review of the forces that have shaped canon formation and curriculum development since the mid-twentieth century, an interrogation of the documents, policies and precedents that guide the selection of texts in the classroom as well as instructional practices, and an examination of the limitations of continuing to employ the interpretive strategies of New Criticism as a primary method of explication. A selection of some of the most commonly taught texts in the province demonstrates the importance of disrupting the literal, common sense readings that often arise within the impartiality of New Criticism.