Recalling the Moral Force of Literature in Education

Abstract

In light of the continuing challenges which schools and libraries face from those who would restrict on moral grounds the literary fare of the young, I thought it helpful to recall the original arguments in public education for making literature a mainstay, arguments which hinged on literature's ability to form the soul, to restore a lost community and 10 foster the state. Rather than treat these as simply antiquated, I argue that there are elements within the work of Mathew Arnold, F.R. Leavis and Louise Rosenblatt which can form the basis of a renewed defence of the moral and educational value of literature in both its aesthetic and testimonial aspects.