Translated literature at school

[Gustavo L.]

I was thinking about literature classes in primary and high schools outside Brazil. Here, before we go to university, we normally don’t study translated literature, only Brazilian and Portuguese authors. I’m curious to know whether the same occurs in your countries, and your opinions about that.

[dramasnot6]

I find reading a range of international texts to be a necessary aspect of studying literature.
I went to high school in Australia. My senior literature class required a distribution of non-Australian and Australian texts, so we ended up reading Brave New World, The Crucible, and some Shakespeare. So we too did not read any non-English texts. I can understand this because it was English lit, but even our supplementary non-tested texts that we read for thematic reasons were English ones. I think we all would have benefited from some more diverse lit.
My drama class also required that we study at least one non-Australian play. We were allowed some translated French,Greek and Italian plays but most teachers chose American or British ones.
I think that the wider the range of international texts available to lit students,the better the education they are likely to get. This is especially true if they want to study lit in university, most good colleges require some world lit.

[Bitterfly]

In France, teachers sometimes do comparative literative in high school. It's even part of the program of the "senior" year. But we only study a few authors, and I remember having to discover non-French literature largely on my own (when it comes to Portuguese/Brazilian literature, I must admit I know almost nothing). I suppose it's a political choice, for, after all, one could imagine a literature curriculum concerned with the greatest works of world literature.

[Gustavo L.]

Thanks for the feedback, people.

I think the most valid argument against foreign literature is perhaps the poor quality of some translations (for instance, my Brazilian editions of War and Peace and A Midsummer Night's Dream are awful); but I think it’s a minor problem when compared with the lack of diversity. I totally agree with you about the benefits of a wider range of international texts, Dramasnot6.

Bitterfly, I think politics is indeed the key. I can well remember Saint-Beuve’s words about “loving your own country, your own time” and the importance of a national tradition in literature. Here in Brazil, since Romanticism many artists and critics have been in a search for cultural identity, which sometimes evolves to a sort of artistic xenophobia. Happily, I sense that this pathological side is much weaker today than in Brazilian Modernism.
It’s great to know that foreign authors are being studied at French schools, even if these authors are still few. I hope I can say the same about our schools someday.

[Bitterfly]

Yes, it is nice! I remember seeing Arthur Schnitzler on the curriculum one year, and I studied Calderon's La vida es sueno. It was great!!
Don't teachers study foreign books in language classes in Brazil though?

I understand your point about cultural protectionism (and like the Sainte-Beuve quote!). I was thinking much upon the same lines. And I suppose also that kids need to know the literature of their own country at least (already it's so hard sometimes to get them to like even that! especially as new-fangled programs tend to demean, alas, classical literature); and there's the factor of "anglophone imperialism" (most children's books in France are translated from the English, probably because the French are not very gifted in that realm) like for the cinema industry. At the same time, I wonder sometimes if the French tradition is not so dried-up because it has not been refreshed by foreign inspiration... I don't know.

You'll have to start a thread on Brazilian literature one day. I think I only know Amado!!

[Gustavo L.]

I’m dying to read Calderón! I hope to do it this year.

Well, to teach Literature at Brazilian schools a Bachelor’s degree on “Letras” (literature+language) is required. So, if one chooses, say, a French or an English degree, he is supposed to read French and English/American authors in their original languages. If one chooses a Portuguese degree he’s supposed to study Latin language too, but not necessarily Latin literature, so far I know.

**Edit: in any other language classes outside university, well, it’s possible to study some literature… but it’s rare to read a whole book.

And, yes, I agree with you on the importance of studying our own tradition too. I think we can combine both ways – to study another cultures and ours.

And I’ll think in some names for the thread you’ve suggested. As for now I can say that Guimarães Rosa’s “The Devil to Pay in the Backlands” (Grande Sertão: Veredas” in Portuguese) is one of the best novels we had in last century.