Charles Dickens has been dumped, George Orwell axed and a critically acclaimed George Clooney movie cut from the list of texts HSC English students will study from 2027.
Female authors, poets and directors make up 49 per cent of creative works on the new prescribed text list – excluding Shakespeare plays – in a move that has been welcomed by classroom teachers.
But some aren’t happy with other aspects of the overhaul, describing the new list as underwhelming, tired and unimaginative. Several texts have been used in the past.
“This morning the mood was one of anger,” one English teacher at a selective school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. “I apologise if this seems petty but it’s something that is going to affect thousands of teachers and students across the state for several years.”
There are 83 texts in total, including films, books, poetry and non-fiction works – almost a 20 per cent reduction from the current list of just over 100 options. Of the new texts, 38 per cent are being prescribed for the first time. About 20 per cent are pre-20th-century texts.
English Teachers Association president Sharyn Stafford welcomed the inclusion of more Indigenous texts but decried the fact there were fewer texts overall.
George Clooney’s critically acclaimed film, Good Night, and Good Luck, has been scratched from HSC text lists.
“My garnering of what teachers are saying is there seems to be less choice,” she said.
A lengthy romance tome from the 1990s, Possession by A. S. Byatt, which was on the list 15 years ago, has returned, while Anthony Doeer’s 2014 novel All the Light We Cannot See, which was recently made into a Netflix series, has been cut.
The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Stephen Daldry, stayed on the list to be studied alongside Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, while George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck, a historical drama about a TV reporter challenging McCarthyism, was scratched.
What is retired and what remains on the HSC English list is decided by a panel of nine teachers alongside some NSW Education Standards Authority staff, who deliberate for about a year about what texts best fit and can realistically be taught within the constraints of the curriculum.
The panel must balance practical considerations – such as trying to choose texts that are probably already sitting in the library – with including a range of diverse voices, and the texts’ literary merit.
While Dickens’ Great Expectations and Orwell’s 1984 will be gone from 2027, lovers of the classics may take solace in the fact Pride and Prejudice has been returned. For poetry, Keats, Yeats and Robert Frost made the list, while Sylvia Plath has been cut.
St Clare’s College Waverley head of English Mary Prince said some classics had been on the list for too long.
“Some of them have been there for a while. Pride and Prejudice is on the list again, this time as a critical study of literature in isolation. Many options like these are a bit stale and lack the academic difficulty we could be asking of students,” she said.
Burwood High School students (from left) Tiare Ceran-Jerusalemy, Aditi Narwania, Lily Munier-Wotton and Angela An in the school library on Wednesday.Credit: Oscar Colman
The new list features more contemporary Australian authors, including non-fiction work by Tim Winton and Richard Flanagan. The work of contemporary British poet Raymond Antrobus is also included.
Barker College head of English Laura Craven said the inclusion of those contemporary texts made her “excited about teaching again”.
“I know that sounds a bit ridiculous but we’ve had the old list for quite a while, so it is nice to see some fresh contemporary texts which make me keen to get reading,” she said.
“Some of the big names have not made this list; it doesn’t mean they won’t be on future lists. The notable one is George Orwell. But he was on the list when I was studying the HSC.”
Craven said students were unlikely to notice the absence of some of the great novelists.
“I can’t imagine a single student who would ask ‘why aren’t we studying Dickens?’”
New text options by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors include works by Tyson Yunkaporta, Samuel Wagan Watson and Evelyn Araluen.
Finigan School of Distance Education English teacher Jessica Scarcella welcomed their inclusion.
“It means there is a diversity of experiences … I see it as a really important part of showing the vibrancy and thriving of Aboriginal culture,” she said.
At Burwood Girls High School, year 9 students, who will study the prescribed texts in 2027 when they are in year 12, welcomed the move to lift the proportion of women authors.
“I feel like otherwise we end up reading the same thing,” student Aditi Narwania said.
Angela An said she felt more connected with the books of female authors.
“I think different authors have different opinions based on their own experiences, including their gender,” she said.
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