The Canon of British Literature, as we know, consists of a homogenous group that does not reflect the rich multicultural world of Great Britain today. As a result, any survey of British Literature oftentimes becomes a skewed representation of the literary diaspora of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
As a teacher who is a champion of teaching diversity, I decided to take on the challenge of diversifying my British Literature course to represent the other important voices of Great Britain. The reality of doing this is quite challenging— as the publication of diverse voices means leaning upon modern literature because these voices were not published or popularized at large in the past.
Let’s check out some authors and texts that make great additions to any British Literature course to expand our students’ experience of the amazing literature from this region.
The Approach
First and foremost, diversifying the British Canon means moving to a thematic approach rather than a purely chronological approach to the literature. The thematic approach enables you to pair old, classic texts with newer, more diverse texts.
I will make unit suggestions here and provide a list of classic and/or traditional British texts with a modern, diverse texts that could work together in the same unit. Please note that these unit themes can be changed around in many different ways and that some of these texts fit into more than one of these unit categories. Use this guide as a springboard for planning and make changes as you see fit.
Unit Theme: Heroism
Diverse Voices
“The Poet as Hero” by Siegfried Sassoon
“The Hero” by Siegfried Sassoon
Traditional Texts
“Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
“Do Not go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
Unit Theme: Identity and Community
Diverse Voices
Excerpts from Tender Earth by Sita Brahmachari
“The Color of Humanity” by Bali Rai
“When the Corridors Echo” from Where I Stand by Sabrina Mahfouz
“Pouring Glow” by Theresa Lola
The To-Let House by Daisy Hasan
“Everybody is Doing it” by Benjamin Zephaniah
“Faceless” by Benjamin Zephaniah
“We Refugees” by Benjamin Zephaniah
“The Race Industry” by Benjamin Zephaniah
“The Doll’s House” by Patience Agbabi
Color Blind by Precious Williams
Yrsa Daley-Ward (Instagram Poet)
My Hair is Pink Under This Veil by Rabina Khan
The Life of a Banana by PP Wong
Descended from Salt Water by S.M.L. Yau
“What it’s Like Speaking a Different Language from Your Parents” by Zakia Uddin
“What Separates us from Chimpanzees” by Jane Goodall (TedTalk)
“Why Diversity and Inclusion is More Than Someone’s Job Title” by Shani Dhanda (TED TALK)
“Rewriting my story with poetry and love as a Queer Muslim” by Sanah Ahsan (TED TALK)
“Why diverse stories matter” by Nikesh Shukla (TED TALK)
Black and British: A short, essential history by David Olusoga (non-fiction)
What is Race? Who are Racists? by Nikesh Shukla and Claire Heuchan
"The New Empire within Britain" by Salman Rushdie (essay)
Traditional Texts
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Unit Theme: Love and Loss
Diverse Voices
“Keeping Orchids” by Jackie Kay
“Unfinished Business” by Patience Agbabi
“Anne Hathaway” by Carol Ann Duffy
The Emperor's Babe by Bernardine Evaristo
“Pastoral Dialogue” by Anne Killigrew
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Traditional Texts
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne
“We are Seven” by William Wordsworth
“To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
“To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell
“How do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Unit Theme:
Ethics, Gender, & The Meaning of Life
Diverse Voices
Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
“The Old Chief Mshlanga” by Doris Lessing
The Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
“The Suburban Classes” by Stevie Smith
Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour by Hsiao-Hung Pai
Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain by Amrit Wilson
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
“The Assault” by Hanif Kureishi
“The Rights of Women” by Anna Laetitia Barbauld
The History of Mary Prince by Mary Prince
“When is a Wheelchair an Ultra-Light Submarine?” by Sue Austin (TEDMED TALK)
“Why I Talk to White Supremacists” by Vidhya Ramalingam (TED TALK)
“Can we eradicate discrimination if we view it as a virus?” by Iyiola Solanke (TED TALK)
“When will you see Black girls?” by Ebinehita Iyere (TED TALK)
“Using Drag to deconstruct, express and reclaim my gender identity” by Adam All (TED TALK)
“A survivor’s plea to end child marriage” by Payzee Mahmod
OROONOKO; OR THE ROYAL SLAVE by Aphra Behn
Traditional Texts
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
“The Convergence of the Twain” by Thomas Hardy
“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning
“The Monkey’s Paw” by WW Jacobs
“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
Unit Theme: Family
Diverse Voices
“My Grandmother’s Houses” by Jackie Kay
“Whilst Leila Sleeps” by Jackie Kay
The Sari of Surya Vilas by Vayu Naidu
Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna
The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota
The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain
Home Fire: A Novel by Kamila Shamsie
“On an Unsociable Family” by Elizabeth Hands
“My Son the Fanatic” by Hanif Kureishi
“Even Pretty Eyes Commit Crimes” by M.J. Hyland
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Boys Don’t Cry by Fiona Scarlett
Traditional Texts
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
“The Stick-Together Families” by Edgar Guest
“The Responsibility of Fatherhood” by Edgar Guest
“Home and the Office” by Edgar Guest
“A Cradle Song” by William Blake
“Nurse’s Song” by William Blake
“To my Sister” by William Wordsworth
“All in a Family Way” by Sir Thomas More
Unit Theme: War
Diverse Voices
The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed
“The Death Bed” by Siegfried Sassoon
“To Any Dead Officer” by Siegfried Sassoon
“Glory of Women” by Siegfried Sassoon
“Dreamers” by Siegfried Sassoon
“Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg
“On Receiving News of the War” by Isaac Rosenberg
“Soldier: Twentieth Century” by Isaac Rosenberg
The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II by Michael Rosen (non-fiction)
The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
Traditional Texts
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
“Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
“The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy
“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen
“The Last Laugh” by Wilfred Owen
“What I Expected” by Stephen Spender
Unit Theme: Art and Writing
Diverse Voices
“Rembrandt’s Late Self-Portraits” by Elizabeth Jennings
Traditional Texts
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“Musee de Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden
“Art thou pale for weariness” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 24: Mine Eye Hath Play’d The Painter and Hath Steel’d”
Unit Theme: Good and Evil
Diverse Voices
“Golden Bough” by Salman Rushdie
“The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier
“The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher- August 6th, 1983” by Hilary Mantel
Traditional Texts
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
“The Lamb” and “The Tyger” by William Blake
“Genesis and Catastrophe” by Roald Dahl
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
“In Dark Places” by Wyl Menmur
I hope this paired list of texts helps you to diversify your British Literature course. It is so important that we begin to teach texts that reflect the dynamic diversity of the students in our classrooms.
Please leave a comment below to join the conversation. I’d love to hear from you!
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About the Author
Meredith is the founder and creator of TeachWriting.org and Bespoke ELA. She has taught high school English for 10+ years in Dallas, Chicago, and New York City and holds a M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University. She has always had a connection to the written word-- through songwriting, screenplay writing, and essay writing-- and she enjoys the process of teaching students how to express their ideas. Meredith enjoys life with her sweet daughter and Yorkie.
