Philosophy and the representation of literary works in high school essays

It is uncontroversial that philosophy amplifies the salience and scope of literary themes. However, it is less clear whether philosophy relates to the way in which literary texts ought to be represented in curriculum-based high school assessment tasks. These tasks mostly take the form of essays in which literary works must be viewed as complex, strongly patterned texts. Ideally, this results in essays in which an author’s use of language reveals a sustained, multifaceted engagement with a particular set of authorial concerns. And yet, despite this focus, virtually all school curricula neglect the underlying genesis and nature of such complex patterns. In particular, how is it that authors generate them at all? It shall be a guiding claim that philosophy is well suited to explore this issue. Moreover, I shall argue that such an understanding can have positive practical outcomes for students, promote holistic pedagogy, and illuminate ways in which high school literary studies can better intersect with tertiary literary studies.