Building a Contemporary List of Texts for Teaching Greek on the Secondary Level

Abstract

This article argues that it is necessary to redefine the canon of works of Greek literature that is read in schools. In addition, it undertakes the attempt to suggest directions in which we could look for new texts in this regard. An increasingly diverse student body and the emergence of new identities within Western Europe require us to go beyond the epic poetry of Homer and authors of the classical period. Pedagogical traditions and their limits of the past may not restrain us for the future. Neither in terms of its content nor in terms of the locations where it was written, Greek literature was ever restricted to what we today define as “Europe”.

Keywords

• reading canon
• teaching Greek
• diversity
• identity