The Subject of Literature

Abstract

A few words are perhaps necessary to explain the context of this essay for an American readership. It was delivered as a paper to the annual conference of the British National Association of (School) Teachers of school in the British sense of institutions for children. Over recent years, a number of young schoolteachers in the multiracial, working-class schools of British inner cities have been attempting to put into classroom practice contemporary approaches in cultural theory, as the first generation of graduates to have been significantly influenced by such ideas in their own university or polytechnic education. I have worked with such groups of teachers, both directly and through the role of theoretical advisor to Thames Television's English programme, which is broadcast specifically for schoolchildren of eleven to fifteen years. The programme tries to translate modern critical ideas into terms which are intelligible to the children and televisually attractive. This, as may be imagined, is a far from easy task, requiring a careful combination of televisual expertise, pedagogical experience, andplumpes Denken. It should be remembered, however, that the audience for these programmes has not yet come under the sway of the ideology of Literature, and is thus in some ways more likely to assent to radical notions of reading than university students who come from the Sixth Form already shaped by the conventional critical wisdom. The production team for the English programme consists of a producer, himself a former schoolteacher, two specialists in the teaching of in schools, and myself. The broadcasts,