What Good is the Canon for a Diversified and Decolonized Curriculum?

Abstract

AbstractIn the interest of fostering a socially critical and inclusive German Studies, this article urges instructors to pursue curricular reforms to diversify and decolonize German curricula at colleges and universities. While the literary canon's centrality to the German major has tended to leave monolithic impressions of “Germany” and “Germanness” on students, and thus presents an obstacle to such efforts, the canon's function might be reconceived so that the “good” it has to offer can serve different pedagogical ends. Using a German program at a liberal arts college as an example, this article presents strategies – from departmental and course learning goals to curricular structure and course design – for how to decenter the canon in the German curriculum in order to foreground social justice concerns and facilitate encounters with diverse perspectives.