One of the most enduring authors in English Literature has been replaced on the literature course of a university in Scotland in a bid to 'decolonise' the curriculum, it has been reported. The Telegraph said Jane Austen will be replaced by Toni Morrison on Stirling University's English module.
Austen (1787-1817) is famed for such classics as Pride and Predudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility and have been the subject of many TV and film adaptations. Toni Morrison (1931-2019) is an American author who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel Beloved and the Nobel Price for Literature in 1993.
While Austen wrote about the life of Regency England, Morrison is famed for her novels about the African American experience which also include Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye. The Telegraph said Stirling University documents said bringing in Morrison would help 'decolonisation of the curriculum".
The paper also said replacing Austen with Morrison would also “contribute to increased diversity” on the syllabus, according to forms informing management of changes to course material.
The paper says students will cover topics such as racial difference and critical race theory, gender and sexuality." It also says the Special Authors module in 2022 will also be taught about “black postmodernism, Gothic, as well as the aesthetics of the contemporary US and African-American novel”.
The Telegraph reports the English and Literature department at Stirling has not critiqued Austen, and the university has said that its Special Authors module changes focus on an annual basis.
Stirling University has said that its rotating Special Authors course “aims to introduce students to a diverse range of writers, including international voices and those from British literary history”.
Back in 2020, after the Black Lives Matter protests, Stirling University Principle Prof Gerry McCormac said the university must “support an anti-racist agenda in higher education”.
