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

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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.