Medieval Literature Fosters Medieval Worldviews

Often, there is a noticeable trend in authors in student booklists: white male, white male, white male, white male, white woman, and a person from marginalized society. Two things should be noted about this: firstly, white male authors have written incredible literature that deserves to be studied. Secondly, semesters are very short and cannot possibly attempt to include one author from every marginalized area of society. With this acknowledged, is the curriculum unfairly favouring white authors because they have historically been deemed the greatest works of all time? 

At Lakehead, there are three distinct “areas” of English. Area One is “Medieval and Early Modern” literature, which primarily consists of heterosexual, white, Christian, male perspectives. Area Two is “18th and 19th Centuries,” which is the perspectives of the latter but they begin to include white women. Area Three is “Minority and Global Literatures,” which contains the perspectives of everyone other than the aforementioned. One full course credit must be obtained from each area. Considering this alone, white-voiced content would make up two-thirds of the mandatory learning for English majors. 

What about the other English courses that do not fit into these areas? From personal experience, the syllabus primarily includes minority authors as tokens to balance out readings full of white authors. But why do we so often only read black authors in the month of February, if not a tokenized addition to readings? Why are small Indigenous-author readings only read in preparation for Truth and Reconciliation Day when not within an Indigenous-focused course? Should LGBTQ+ authors only be read in Queer Studies, or for their work to be picked apart as a representation of their sexuality? 

An argument could be made that there is not enough time in a semester to include all types of literature. Surely, however, it is possible to replace one’s third reading of Beowolf or Frankenstein with a piece by a marginalized author. It should not be considered ‘normal’ to repetitively read glorified white authors instead of making room for others. We have too many technological resources to exclude overlooked works of literature.