Virginia Woolf was a Brontëite

The Guardian discusses how to teach about canonical books in the postcolonial era.

Such events remind us that empire isn’t a question of moral judgment about a bygone era. Empire is still shaping our world.

How can we reflect this reality in the curriculum? One answer would be moving the teaching of empire beyond the history class and into other subjects across the humanities and social sciences. Currently, students can study for their GCSE in citizenship without learning that all the people of the British empire, from Lagos to London, had the same citizenship status of “British subject” until 1948. On an A-level law course, students can be introduced to the British constitutional system with no mention that the Queen is still the head of state in places such as Jamaica, the Bahamas and Bermuda, or that her privy council serves as the highest court in these countries. English literature students can read canonical books such as Jane Eyre or Mansfield Park without considering the colonial settings that provide the background to these stories. Economics students read entire textbooks about development without discussing how this topic emerged from the decolonisation of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Such imperial amnesia renders pertinent questions in a number of disciplines off limits. (Kojo Koram)

LitHub shares an excerpt from Grant Ginder's new novel, Let's Not Do That Again.

And so on, and so forth, and et cetera. For the next hour and fifteen minutes they discussed the essay’s troubling allusions to Jordan Baker, and its misguided admiration of Chinese Gordon in Khartoum; they discussed the name Chinese Gordon. They discussed the intellectual privilege of Phi Beta Kappa, and the shaming of Cathy in Wuthering Heights, and the essay’s “presumptive” and “all-encompassing” use of we. They discussed Julian English and Appointment in Samarra and the nineteenth century and paper Food Fair bags. They never—not even once—discussed self-respect.

This reviewer from Letra Global (Spain) seems to have no idea of how different the characters created by Jane Austen and the Brontës can be (and they are hardly commonplace, accidental or easy) and how Virginia Woolf admired those writers.

No hay en estos diarios nada banal, fortuito ni fácil. Woolf jamás se habría perdonado parecerse un personaje de las hermanas Bronte o de Jane Austen. (Mercedes de Pablos) (Translation)

AARP features the TV show Wild Harry:

When Harry gets mugged by a 15-year-old (Rohan Nedd), instead of turning him in, she [the detective played by Jane Seymour] recruits him as her detective partner. “He’s actually not a bad guy, he just comes from completely different circumstances. He’s smart.” Also, he’s street smart, which she isn’t. “While they’re chasing murderers, she’s teaching him the classics, so he can pass his exams and go on to university. Facing the barrel of a gun about to die, she’s passing on tips on Romeo and Juliet or Wuthering Heights.” (Tim Appelo)