Quote:
Originally Posted by sun surfer
The inference here is incorrect. You are stating that this is a course for English in England, not Britain or the UK, so therefore you seem to be inferring that they are OK in focusing on works from England in particular. In the very first sentence of the article it states that (bold mine) "the education secretary called for more British works to be studied." And later on one category mentioned is (again bold mine) "post-1914 fiction or drama written in the British Isles". Never in the article is a focus on England in particular mentioned.
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The GCSE exam is the basic grounding in the subject area - things which every schoolchild is expected to be taught. It seems to me that the main focus of an English literature course taught to English schoolchildren should be to introduce them to the literary and cultural heritage which has helped to shape the society in which they are living. Although books like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Of Mice and Men" are without question important literary works, they really don't form a part of British cultural or literary history - they are American works and important to American history and culture, not Britain's. It's right and proper that the syllabus should concentrate on literary works which have shaped or which reflect British society, just as I would expect a literature course taught to American schoolchildren to concentrate on those works which are culturally important to the US.