Local canons: institutional authority and the category of the literary in Australian secondary-school English syllabuses, 1901-2001

文学在当代澳大利亚文化和社会中仍然发挥着作用吗？研究莎士比亚有什么全国性的好处吗？帕特里克·怀特？文学研究是不是无关紧要，与当代文化脱节？这些都是有争议的重要问题。这项研究试图更深入、更详细地了解过去一个世纪澳大利亚学校教育中文学范畴的多样性，有望为长期存在且仍然至关重要的关于经典的国内和国际辩论做出重要贡献：这些辩论告诉我们许多关于我们地区和世界的信息。

Does literature still have a role to play in contemporary Australian culture and society? Is there any national benefit from the study of Shakespeare? Patrick White? Is literary study irrelevant, and out of touch with contemporary culture? These are contentious and important questions. This research, in seeking a deeper and more detailed understanding of the variability of the category of literature in Australian school education over the past century, promises to make an important contribution to long-standing and still vital national and international debates over the canon: debates that tell us a great deal about our region and the world.