Alright, I don't know if this is allowed. I wanted to put it to chat or to general teaching, but then I figured it actually has some good grounds for discussion too, so I put it to general literature, moderators please remove if it's better suited someplace else.
A friend is doing this thing for her class at school, and as she knows I hang at some literary forum (), she asked me to post it and get some responses (she speaks no English, ergo she cannot do it herself). Though the survey is far from perfect, I actually thought it was curious enough to be posted, so I agreed. Some of those questions are actually pretty good grounds for discussion, and I'd love the thread to eventually go that way, and 'by the way' I will collect data for her.
You don't need to state your country if you don't wish to.
1. In your country, as a part of your native language / literature class, or the equivalent, is exclusively your national literature read, or world literature as well?
Were there special classes for national/world literature or was it put in one class? If the former, were those classes mandatory?
2. The curriculum your professors used to teach you world literature was:
a) prescribed by the government, i.e. it was national curriculum for that class/area;
b) basically prescribed by the government, but allowing manipulations up to some extent by individual professor;
c) prescribed for lesser than national area, i.e. it followed curriculum for specific district, community, etc;
d) entirely up to your professor.
3. From the final 3 years of high school - or the equivalent - in your country, do you remember reading non-national literature from: [select all that applies]
a) the period of classical antiquity (ancient Greece/Rome);
b) middle ages epic works, or excerpts from them, of other nations (e.g. Chanson de Roland, Beowulf, Kalevala, etc);
c) XX century and beyond literature from USA;
d) other literature from any anglophone countries;
e) France - any period;
f) Italy - any period;
g) Russia - any period;
h) non-European, non-Israeli and non-American (both Americas included) literature from any country and any historical period.
4. Was world literature on the level of final 3 years of high school / equivalent studied chronologically, or by some other criteria? If so, what was the criteria?
Was national literature on the same level of education studied chronologically or by some other criteria (which)?
5. During the final 3 years of high school / equivalent, when studying national literature, you read: [select all that applies]
a) whole works, be it of poetry or prose;
b) excerpts from larger works;
c) small in size works of poetry or prose (poems, short stories, etc);
d) drama;
e) literary criticism BY national authors studied;
f) literary criticism ABOUT national authors studied BY other national authors;
g) literary criticism ABOUT national authors studied BY non-national authors.
6. Practically the same question, only it is about world literature this time.
7. When teaching national and world literature, your professor:
a) had the textbook which they followed;
b) had the textbook which they basically followed, modifying the content a bit and adding their own things to it, but not making more than roughly 20% modifications;
c) had the textbook and used their own materials approximately the same;
d) had the textbook only formally, but taught their own materials (not using textbook more than 10%);
e) taught only their own materials, without even formal presence of the textbook.
8. Do you believe that during your schooling you were exposed to enough foreign literature?
9. Do you believe that during your schooling you have got to know your national literature well enough?
10. Do you believe world literature should be taught as a compulsory separate subject or as a part of already existing compulsory subject: [select all that you think]
a) on the level of primary education;
b) on the level of middle-school;
c) on the level of final 3 years of high school or the equivalent.
11. If you agree that the world literature studied should be compulsory in some way, do you believe only works which roughly correspond to your civilisation should be studied, or also works from other civilisations? (NB: Studied, not mentioned in class.)
12. When reading books of your own choice, what is approximately the ratio of national/world literature you read?
13. Do you think the presence or lack thereof of world literature in your education influenced the ratio from the previous question?