Towards more meaningful teaching of literature in Serbian schools. (Paradoxes of curriculum)

In this paper we deal with the current problems of teaching literature in the educational system of the Republic of Serbia and point to the complex external and internal factors affecting the collapse of its importance. We begin by examining the impact of neo-liberal tendencies of education policy, focused on identifying competencies and skills in the teaching of literature. Transforming education in useful, measurable product denies the nature of literature, since the form of the test cannot estimate the multiple understanding of complex artistic text. The role of literature in contemporary education has been further destroyed by suppressing the spirituality in growing up, phenomenon of fluid identity and social crisis and a period of transition. The consequences are the reading crisis and counteraction of students towards literary texts from curriculum. We consider the multiple paradoxes of the curriculum: the contradiction between the canon and the reception possibilities of young readers, the issue of gap between young readers’ affinity from curriculum texts and the question of the national canon in the global context. How to achieve a better quality of teaching literature in Serbian schools and inspire students to read the curriculum texts? We recommend updating the curriculum, inclusion of modern literary texts (taking into account the aesthetic criteria) and vertical rotation in the approach of modern text to literary history; changing teaching methods of immanent orientation of the text to the application of multiple methodological approach and encouraging students to independent, critical attitude towards the text, forming substantiated, critical judgments about themselves and the world.