"Schlesinger's Canon Vs. My High School's Canon"
In school, whether it be at the high school or college levels, there are
usually lists of books thought as being essential reading. Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr.--a Pulitzer Prize winning historian--calls this list in his
book The Disuniting of America, a "canon" or "canonical literature." A problem
exists with this canon, at least Schlesinger claims there is. He states that
the canon is being used "as an instrument of European oppression enforcing the
hegemony of the white race, the male sex, and the capitalist class…" From my
high school experience, I believe this is not true. At my high school, teachers
encourage students to read not only standard English literature, but also ...
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society, we should be teaching a multicultural curriculum.
At my high school, I feel as if I received this type of education. The
teachers encourage students to read not only standard English literature, but
also to study the great writers of other ethnicities. My high school is a
private college preparatory institution in San Francisco. Some authors whose
works we read in our English classes consisted of Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Jane
Austen, Ovid, Maya Angelou, Chaim Potok, John Steinbeck, Amy Tan, Chinua Achebe,
and C. S. Lewis.
This curriculum is not at all what Schlesinger claims to be the current
"American literary canon: Emerson, Jefferson, Melville, Whitman, Hawthorne,
Thoreau, Lincoln, Twain, Dickinson, William and Henry James, Henry Adams, Holmes,
Dreiser, Faulknner, O' Neill." We touched on most of these people also, but
not nearly as in depth as we did the other authors. Schlesinger's list seems to
point out his fact that the canon is being used for ...
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"Schlesinger's Canon Vs. My High School's Canon". (2004, April 28). Retrieved October 31, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Schlesingers-Canon-Vs-My-High-Schools/6945
""Schlesinger's Canon Vs. My High School's Canon"." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 28 Apr. 2004. Web. 31 Oct. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Schlesingers-Canon-Vs-My-High-Schools/6945>
""Schlesinger's Canon Vs. My High School's Canon"." Essayworld.com. April 28, 2004. Accessed October 31, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Schlesingers-Canon-Vs-My-High-Schools/6945.
""Schlesinger's Canon Vs. My High School's Canon"." Essayworld.com. April 28, 2004. Accessed October 31, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Schlesingers-Canon-Vs-My-High-Schools/6945.
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