Die Kanondebatte – Positionen und Entwicklungen

Abstract

In recent years, a canon of modern German literature has been widely discussed, particularly in the context of educational reforms. The discourse has taken place both in the public sphere of (print) media and within the fields of literary studies as well as teaching mehodology, with obvious interferences. Positions reach from demands to foster and revise a canon to its complete rejection as an educated middle-class phenomenon. While literary studies have developed a nomenclatura of the canon concept and reflected on criteria for its compilation, teaching methodology recommends – in view of competence-oriented literature courses – to focus on the teaching of a basic knowledge of literary history, which seems to make the consideration of a canon indispensible in a certain framework.