Q&A about the Literature Curriculum

~ Clarissa

Oh, what a lovely question. A lovely, lovely question.

I would include An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser so they can understand the American East Coast. And The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner so they learn about the American West. And yes, these are very long, but what’s the rush?

I’d include short stories by O. Henry and Jack London so that they can understand the American spirit.

For Europe, I’d put Robinson Crusoe by Defoe and Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.

Ivan Bunin’s diary of the Communist revolution of 1917 Cursed Days is crucial to understand the horror of the twentieth century that haunts us still.

I’d put poetry by TS Eliot and Seamus Heaney on the list.

These are the titles that come to me early (9 am) on a Saturday morning without much thinking. What would you add?

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Published by Clarissa

20 thoughts on “Q&A about the Literature Curriculum”

  1. Mark Twain is the Americanest American writer. We’ve done Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as read-alouds at least twice, as well as Connecticut Yankee. He was effectively banned from our school curricula for too many swear words.

    I quite enjoyed Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings– she used to be included in our school roster as a specifically *Florida* writer. I don’t know if that translates to the rest of the country. The awful part was that she got replaced by Zora Neale Hurston.

    Like them or not, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Emily Dickinson are a great way to get a feel for old New England.

    I’d include Richard Henry Dana’s *Two Years Before the Mast* which is autobiography and utterly fascinating in its depiction of travel and shipping before the railroads and the Panama Canal, and the culture of West-Coast towns of the early 19th century.

    -ethyl

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    1. Definitely Mark Twain. And definitely not Zora Neale Hurston. For people who are newish here, I suggest my post about that miserable time when I read Hurston for a book club: https://clarissasblog.com/2020/10/20/book-notes-zora-neale-hurstons-their-eyes-were-watching-god/

      Hawthorne is a fine author but The Scarlet Letter has been overused in school curricula to advance the idea that sexual immorality is wonderful. That’s the only reason why I would step away from it. I know he published a lot of other stuff but I haven’t read it.

      Emily Dickinson, definitely. She’s great.

      I haven’t read the others you mention but I definitely should.

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      1. Scarlet Letter is far from the only thing Hawthorne wrote. No reason you couldn’t go with House of Seven Gables or Tanglewood Tales instead.

        I have it on good authority that James Fenimore Cooper is a permanent part of the mandatory AmLit canon, but… I’m not a dude so maybe I just don’t get him, or perhaps I need to re-read as an adult not under duress 😉

        -ethyl

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    2. I grew up in Miami (and unincorporated Dade) in the 1950s and 60s, and we also had Florida history in the curriculum, including said Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. I think it was the school librarian in 4th grade who listed and described some of the work of “Florida authors”; and, absurdly to my later view, included Robert Frost, on the ground that he had a winter home in South Florida.

      Since I wasn’t otherwise at all familiar with Frost, when she later asked us to feed back the names of Florida authors, I misremembering piped up with “Jack Frost!”.

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      1. Jack Frost! 😀

        That is like including Laura Ingalls Wilder in Florida lit because they tried briefly to move to…. somewhere around Ocala? for her husband’s health. Didn’t work out. Though Wilder’s a *classic* bit of Americana and not to be missed. Not highschool level though.

        IIRC, Rawlings is to Florida kind of what Gene Stratton-Porter is to Indiana.

        Did you ever read Bartram’s Travels? I was never introduced to that one in school, but it’s a fascinating bit of regional history, and I’m including it for my own kids.

        For early 20th century West (and a bit of New England also) I and the kids read Ralph Moody’s memoirs, which are fantastic, but saving the last couple of books (Horse of a Different Color, and Shaking the Nickel Bush) for when they’re a little older. Those would be fine for high schoolers, and I recommend ALL of them. I mean, if you’re looking for fully-saturated American writing you can’t beat Moody.

        -ethyl

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  2. “My First Summer in the Sierra”, John Muir; “Victory”, Joseph Conrad; “Undaunted Courage”, Stephen Ambrose, “This House of Sky”, Ivan Doig.

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  3. A great list of authors, absolutely none of which I read in school! We read plenty of good stuff in school (though plenty not American, ex. Shakespeare.) Just shows how much there is to choose from.

    Not creative choices, but I’d definitely include Faulkner, Poe, and your favorite commie Steinbeck. In addition to just being famous, well regarded writers, ime they’re likely to get kids enthusiastic (though Faulkner is maybe a better choice specifically for gifted children; The Sound and the Fury was probably the most difficult book I read in high school.) I liked most authors we read in high school, but I didn’t check out every book by most of them from the library the way I did with Steinbeck. Jack London is also criminally underrated in the current cultural moment, though like with Treasure Island I wonder if he’s better read independently outside of school (I would never assign Little Women in a k-12 setting for similar reasons.)

    Someone who actually enjoys Walt Whitman or Ernest Hemingway can feel free to teach these seminal American authors. That person would definitely not be me.

    I might have more thoughts when I’m not needing to head to work.

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      1. I loved Little Women but in addition to it being better to discover on your own, it’s not really a high school level book. Unless I’m wildly misremembering when I read it. What I couldn’t stand was Little House on the Prairie. Dreadfully boring. My sister loved those books though.

        Another book I wouldn’t assign is The Great Gatsby. Not because I have anything in particular against the book, but because I don’t think 15 year olds can really understand it. I’m baffled that teachers think this is a good book to assign to that age group.

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          2. Also, let’s note that I loved Little Women, proceeded to read probably 10 Louisa May Alcott books afterwards…and the present day literary scene is too feminized for MY tastes.

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