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Europe
US novels banned from UK classrooms!
2014-05-25
THE John Steinbeck novella Of Mice and Men, and other American classics including Arthur Miller's play The Crucible and the Harper Lee novel To Kill a Mockingbird, have been dropped from new English literature GCSEs after Michael Gove, the education secretary, insisted teenagers had to study works by British writers.

Three-quarters of the books on the governmentdirected GCSEs, which will be unveiled this week, are by British authors and most are pre-20th century.

"Of Mice and Men, which Michael Gove really dislikes, will not be included. It was studied by 90% of teenagers taking English literature GCSE in the past," said OCR, one of Britain's biggest exam boards. "Michael Gove said that was a really disappointing statistic."

OCR added: "In the new syllabus 70-80% of the books are from the English canon."
I think that's why they call it English literature...
Posted by:3dc

#13  I love British non-fiction, but loathe most British fiction.

I can see how Austen and Hardy might not be your style, but, c'mon -- Scott and Haggard and Doyle and Kipling??
Posted by: Angie Schultz   2014-05-25 19:59  

#12  Besides, Chandler had been to Britian, right?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2014-05-25 19:35  

#11  I could see dumping Of Mice and Men, and anything by Arthur Miller... but I'd keep Chandler on the reading list by any means necessary.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2014-05-25 19:35  

#10  ..now that you've piped up, it does raise a question - does 'English' literature in their canon include Irish authors?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2014-05-25 17:48  

#9  Not literature but we get most of our DVDs from Amazon.UK. The difference between UK and US DVD entertainment is remarkable. Plots are better, Directing is better, Acting is better, in most cases.
Posted by: irishrageboy   2014-05-25 16:27  

#8  Ship, I love British mysteries.
Posted by: AlanC   2014-05-25 16:13  

#7  and most are pre-20th century


OK.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-05-25 14:08  

#6  HS here was American Lit and British Lit, never the Twain they met.

I love British non-fiction, but loathe most British fiction. That Chaucer d00d was the last good story-teller, I suspect his decedents ended up in Mississippi.
Posted by: Shipman   2014-05-25 13:43  

#5  emphasizing? Absolutely no problem.
Posted by: Frank G   2014-05-25 13:15  

#4  I don't have a problem with emphasizing British literature in British classrooms.

I just find it bitterly amusing that those who condemn 'multiculturalism' in education here in the US, are treating this like it's some sort of '1984'.
Posted by: Pappy   2014-05-25 13:09  

#3  OS, that would be the re-tribalization of the world. Much of the world, EXCEPT AMERICA, is based on the remains of ancient tribes - the Franks, the Celts, the Persians, the Han Chinese, and so on.

Only in America, at least when we were a melting pot, were we getting away from tribes
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2014-05-25 12:42  

#2  The tribalization of the world continues apace.
Posted by: OldSpook   2014-05-25 12:01  

#1  70-80% of the books are from the English canon.”

So what are the other 20% to 30%, that the Muslim canon tailored for the mid-lands? Maybe the socialist canon for the EU?
Posted by: AlanC   2014-05-25 10:22  

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