ABSTRACT
We begin the story of English in the middle of the last century. With the changing of the critical guard, through formalism, structuralism, post-structuralism et al came the focus on the interconnections between literature and society and the role of literature in reinforcing cultural beliefs. On one key level, the clash was between those who saw literature as a world within a world, and those who believed literature should be up there on the barricades with others who wanted to change the world. Inevitably, the argument spilled over into classrooms. Subsequently, the battle between Bullock’s ‘mechanics’ and Holbrook’s ‘meaning’ have echoed down the years ever since and so the rest of this first chapter traces that echo through a series of UK reports, all addressing the success or otherwise of English in the UK’s schools, and what schools ought to do better. These debates are much wider than the UK. They have worldwide implications. Our job has been to tell the story and at the same time resist premature synthesis, partly because the story is not at an end and partly because we are teachers, not politicians; we believe in ‘things being various’ not in simple answers and prescriptions. Adherence to a single theory or a single voice subtracts rather than adds to our understanding.
