The teaching of literature Irene Pieper Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg Symposion Deutschdidaktik Strasbourg, 17/10/06

Aspects Literary education and the notion of „literarische Bildung“ Curriculum developments and central purposes of literary education Primary and secondary education: From learning with literature to learning about literature? Canon and criteria of text selection Reading literature, reading literacy and competences Reading literature, assessment and „literarische Bildung“

Literarische Bildung Participation in cultural life Personal development and enrichment within society Notion of elite CULTURE – culture Canon diverse cultural forms Teaching literature cultural techniques reading content form literary history media ?! Domain of social subjectivity meaningfulness

Curriculum developments since the late 1970s Conception of language: pragmatics; communication Diversification in literary studies Conception of text: literary texts, pragmatic texts; other media Focus on learning / the learner Shift: encourage students to read / reading for personal enrichment in context

Primary and secondary education: From learning with literature to learning about literature? Primary school: learning to read, arts, ethics Secondary education: traces of literary studies Adequate reception of literary texts?

Canon and criteria of text selection Critique of the notion of canon Exemplary texts Criteria: students‘ interests; introduction to different genres / to literary history; themes; pluralism; pragmatic reasons..

Reading literature, reading literacy and competences Reading literacy – literary competences? Progression in interpreting literary texts? Scaling? Concepts of competences – theoretical framework / branch of literary studies

Reading literature, assessment and literarische Bildung Problems of assessment Exemplary texts Context knowledge Tension between general aims of education and operationalisation of competences, evaluation

Outlook Double route: reading literacy – culture of reading LE and foreign languages in dialogue Cross-cultural perspectives

Key Questions How can the specific educational benefit of dealing with literature be laid down in a European framework? How can literature be addressed within an LE-framework so as to acknowledge different national traditions? How can literature be addressed within an LE-framework so that both cultural memory and the present cultural diversity are reflected?