Literature textbooks have been used in English classes, particularly in underresourced schools, since the late 1800s. Since then, literature textbooks have been the de facto literary studies curriculum for most high school students. Practitioners and researchers in the field of literary studies at the secondary level do not have an account of how the questions central to literary studies have been addressed by the publishers of high school literature textbooks since the 1960s. I selected six widely adopted tenth-grade literature textbooks and their accompanying teacher’s editions from three generations (the 1960s, 1990s, and 2020s) and analyzed the texts and authors, organization, and instructional apparatus in the student editions and the teaching materials in the teacher’s editions. I used the data to identify the types of literary texts, author characteristics, knowledge emphasized by textbook publishers, and the cognitive, social, and interpretive abilities they favored. I then compared these findings across the three generations. Three characteristics of literary study have remained stable from the 1960s to the 2020s. First, the knowledge privileged by textbooks—understanding literary terms and enlarging vocabulary—has remained constant. Second, students spent more time in class on solitary activities, such as keeping logs and reading texts, than on group activities. Most textbooks in the study emphasized a product-oriented approach to interpretation and favored a single, authoritative answer to questions.. Starting in the 21st century, literature textbooks have transformed from print-only editions to digital-only and hybrid print and digital editions, raising concerns about the cognitive and economic impact of screen reading. Audio, visual, and multi-media texts have become the focus of study on equal footing with textual genres, signaling the emergence of digital literacy, a form of literacy that has become necessary because of social, economic, cultural, and technological changes in the early 21st century. Digital editions allowed teachers and administrators to track data online from students’ assignments and assessments, suggesting that high school literature classes have become a site of instrumentarian power. 21st-century instructional apparatus introduced a two-step procedure for reading and interpreting texts. The first step emphasized the surface meaning of the text with comprehension activities. The second step instructed students to “close read the text" (Morrell et al., 2022a, p. 476). Both steps privilege an efferent reading of all genres while impeding students’ ability to have an aesthetic experience of literary texts.

The topic of the diploma thesis is Concerning Chosen Translations of the Poem The Raven by E. A. Poe - an Attempt at a Comparison. The thesis deals with the comparison of Czech translations which have been written over the period of the last twenty years. The original text would be also dealt with, since there come up distinct shifts of meaning within the process of translation. However, the author will not omit different aesthetical qualities of the original and target language. An observation of schoolbooks for teaching literature at secondary and high schools will be added together with an attempt to determine the most frequently included translation which could therefore be considered as canonic. The output of the thesis should be an analysis evaluating whether including the translation in schoolbooks is appropriate and offering a constructive suggestion on an alternative one.

Η συγκεκριμένη μελέτη, διερευνά εκτενώς τις αξίες στα Νεοελληνικά αναγνώσματα εξαταξίου Γυμνασίου περιόδου 1940-1950, το θεματικό και ιδεολογικό περιεχόμενο τους, σε μια ιδιαίτερη ιστορικό-πολιτική φάση της πολεμικής και μεταπολεμικής Ελλάδας. Η έρευνα έδειξε ότι ανάλογα με τις πολιτικές και θρησκευτικές συνθήκες στα Νεοελληνικά αναγνώσματα έμπαιναν κείμενα που αποσκοπούσαν στην προαγωγή των σκοπών που επεδίωκε η πολιτική κατάσταση. Η εσωτερίκευση αξιών ήταν επιλεκτική για να υπηρετηθούν οι εκάστοτε σκοποί της εξουσίας. Αξίες που βοηθούν στη πολιτικοποίηση όχι στη κομματικοποίηση δεν προωθούνται σε αυτά τα κείμενα. Παρατηρούμε ότι το σύστημα αξιών της περιόδου αυτής είναι μια σύνθεση εθνικών, θρησκευτικών και ηθικών αξιών. Ο κεντρικός θεματικός πυρήνας των κειμένων παραμένει σχετικά σταθερός, με βασικό άξονα προσανατολισμού την πατρίδα, τους Ελληνικούς τόπους, τη φύση, τη θρησκεία και την οικογένεια. Το αξιολογικό περιεχόμενο στα αναγνωστικά της περιόδου αυτής επικεντρώνεται στην προβολή κυρίως εθνικών, θρησκευτικών και ηθικών αξιών. Εμφανίζει περισσότερο έναν εθνοκεντρικό, παραδοσιακό και συντηρητικό προσανατολισμό αξιών, που ανταποκρίνεται στη συντηρητική υφή της κυρίαρχης ιδεολογίας της εποχής εκείνης, και μεταβάλλεται σε μια συστηματική προσπάθεια κατήχησης και δογματικού διαποτισμού. Όλες οι αξίες συνεργάζονται και αλληλοσυμπληρώνονται, και τελικά αποτελούν ένα ενιαίο ιδεολογικό σύστημα αξιών, συμβατό με την ιδεολογία του εκπαιδευτικού συστήματος, που ηγεμονεύεται από την κυρίαρχη ιδεολογία του πολιτικοκοινωνικού συστήματος. / This study explores at length the values in Modern Greek Literature readings six-grade secondary Gymnasium period 1940-1950, the thematic and ideological content in a particular historical-political phase of the war and the post-war Greece. The investigations showed that depending on the political and religious conditions the texts had aimed at promoting the objectives pursued by the political situation. Thus was selective internalization of values to serve the respective objects of power. Values that help politicization rather than political parties are not promoted in these texts. Notice that the value system of this period is a synthesis of national, religious - moral values. Central core theme of the text remains relatively stable, with the main orientation axis of the homeland, the Greek places, nature, religion and family. The evaluative content to readers of this period show mainly focuses on national religious and moral values. It displays a more ethnocentric, traditional and conservative orientation of values, which correspond to conservative texture of the dominant ideology of the time, and changes in a systematic effort indoctrination and dogmatic indoctrination. Altogether the values complement each other, and ultimately form a single ideological value system, compatible with the ideology of the educational system, which overmaster by the dominant ideology of social and political system.