The New Grammar for Reading and Writing: Literature in the ‘Brave New World’

Abstract

We both believe that studying literature is an enriching experience for all students of primary, middle years and secondary school English. Literature is one of the three strands of the Australian Curriculum: English (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2017a) and takes a special prominence in the Australian Senior Secondary Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2017b). According to ACARA (2017b), literary texts encompass a breadth of manuscripts, including ‘texts from across a range of historical and cultural contexts that are valued for their form and style and are recognised as having enduring or artistic value.’ In the primary and junior secondary years in Australia, ‘texts are chosen because they are judged to have potential for enriching the lives of students, expanding the scope of their experience, and because they represent effective and interesting features of form and style.’ The role of teachers is to support students to ‘interpret, appreciate, evaluate and create literary texts such as short stories, novels, poetry, prose, plays, film and multimodal texts, in spoken, print and digital/online forms’ (ACARA, 2017d). By the senior secondary years, students are required to analyse, examine, interpret and construct increasingly complex literary texts in analytical essays, critical comparisons and narrative writing (ACARA, 2017d).