ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to do three things.1 First, developing an aspect of the discussion of literature and reading position that fi gured briefl y in Chapter 3, I will discuss the issue of representation in literature. Second, developing one of the themes from the previous chapter, I want to look further at the relationship between texts, teachers and school students. And third, again touching on an aspect of the previous chapter, I want to suggest ways in which the literature read and written in the classroom can contribute towards students’ understanding of and engagement with the wider world. In exploring these questions, I will be exploring the categorisation of literature enacted in policy, and how policy envisages that different categories of literature will be read differently, for different purposes. I will be comparing what policy has to say on these matters with the ways in which texts that might be construed as multicultural are read in particular classrooms, by particular groups of students.
