【by Paulina Campanella】
In Latin, manifestus means “obvious” and manifestare means “to make public.” In this manifesto, I would like to make public the obvious—or at least, what I believe should be obvious. My intended subject is the lack of imaginative fiction in public high school curriculums, and my intended audience is anyone who is willing and able to read two-and-a-half pages of writing when it is not required by an authority figure. I realize this constitutes a limited audience.
There is an understood required reading list in American high schools, including texts like The Odyssey, The Scarlet Letter, and The Grapes of Wrath. These books are extraordinary literary works whose interpretive claim justifies their status as “classics.” You’d think such texts are beloved by students and encourage them to continue reading after high school. But 33% of high schoolers never read a book after graduation,[i] and many students replace these works with SparkNotes. If a classic text has great potential for literary pedagogy but annually fails to achieve its potential, it no longer has great potential. If books have inherent literary value but turn off entire generations from the prospect of reading, they have no place being taught in high schools. A required reading list in high school doubles as a to-be-avoided reading list in adulthood.
To halt this educational calamity, we need to incorporate into the curriculum other books that 1) engage students enough that they actually read them, 2) encompass the same literary values as classics, and 3) encourage high schoolers to continue reading after graduation. In other words, we need to teach imaginative fiction, which is “literature set in a world other than that of the reader,”[ii] comprising genres like fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, and surrealism.
Science fiction is anchored to history both in content and in context. Teachers would find immense success having students study the time period surrounding a science fiction text and discussing how this context influences the story and setting. For instance, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and the Fantastic Four acquired superpowers from radiation between 1961 and 1962, the height of the Cold War, when American discourse about nuclear activity was rampant and fear of radiation launched many supernatural stories.[iii] The impacts of the Cold War on science fiction over time would constitute a rich English course, including texts like “There Will Come Soft Rains” and Watchmen. (But that would require high schools to accept graphic novels as literature, which calls for another manifesto entirely). The course could come full-circle with Spider-Man: Reign (2006), in which close contact with the beloved superhero causes a fatal cancer in Mary-Jane Watson,[iv] demonstrating the shift in radiation perception post-Cold War. Another possible course topic is investigating changing American perspectives on imperialism with science fiction novels, from how War of the Worlds(1898) uses a Martian invasion to incite colonization anxiety in readers to how characters in Speaker for the Dead (1986) openly criticize the xenocide of the bugger race while hypocritically colonizing the piggies.[v]
Fantasy presents a different literary perspective: allegory. Authors use the genre for speculation on human nature,[vi] enhanced by a magical setting. Allegorical fantasy began with religious commentary, most famously in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia—but themes more appropriate for public high school settings are all over the genre. J.R.R. Tolkien provides a fantastical parallel to both World Wars in The Lord of the Rings, writing battles against slavery and totalitarianism.[vii] Fantasy works like his allow for allegorical analysis with multiple layers of interpretation, some related to historical events and others to the human experience. Villains in fantasy have represented bullies, drugs, gangs, violence, abuse, and prejudice,[viii] all personal conflicts that would connect students to their studies.
Imaginative fiction has received support in critical literary examination,[ix] offering deep historical and allegorical perspectives for English curriculums. So why do we only teach Brave New World and Beowulf in high school? There was a post-industrial move toward realism in the twentieth century[x] that discredited anything imaginative as “escapist fluff.”[xi] A work of imaginative fiction should not have to be 91 years old (or over a millennium) to be a curriculum standard. This outdated prejudice favoring realism is “culturally disastrous and psychologically naïve,” [xii] harming American education by blindly limiting student thought.
It is undeniable that imaginative fiction has literary merit—the only debate is whether high school curriculums will reconstruct reading lists because of it. High schools should incorporate imaginative fiction alongside classics to introduce new perspectives; they might even consider developing courses wholly based on imaginative fiction, as I’ve illustrated above. The key concept here is fluidity in curriculum, depending on the needs of the student body, who will benefit academically,[xiii] enjoy the books more, and be actively engaged to read and learn—constituting an ideal English class. I have no doubts in this plan’s success; I only wonder why officials in secondary education are so against it, and I send this message to them: if you cannot make room for one imaginative fiction work in an entire year, your ensuing lack of organization and adaptability deems you unfit to teach high school students. Maybe you, along with standard high school curriculums, are what needs to change.
Works Cited
“About Literacy Inc.” Literacy Inc., literacyinc.com/about us/#:~:text=33%25%20of%20U.S.%20high%20school,in%20the%20past%20five%20years. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.
Andrews, Kaare. Spider-Man: Reign. Marvel Comics, 2006.
Grewell, Greg. “Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 55, no. 2 (2001): 25–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/1348255.
“Imaginative Fiction.” Oxford Reference, www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095958181. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.
Prothero, James. “Fantasy, Science Fiction, and the Teaching of Values.” The English Journal 79, no. 3 (1990): 32–34. https://doi.org/10.2307/819231.
“Radiation-Induced Superpowers.” TV Tropes, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RadiationInducedSuperpowers. Accessed 15 May 2023.
Thomas, Melissa. “Teaching Fantasy: Overcoming the Stigma of Fluff.” The English Journal 92, no. 5 (2003): 60–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/3650426.
[i] “About Literacy Inc,” (Literacy Inc).
[ii] “Imaginative Fiction,” (Oxford Reference).
[iii] “Radiation-Induced Superpowers,” (TV Tropes).
[iv] Kaare Andrews, Spider-Man: Reign (Marvel Comics, 2006).
[v] Greg Grewell, “Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future” (Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 55, no. 2, 2001), 40.
[vi] Melissa Thomas, “Teaching Fantasy: Overcoming the Stigma of Fluff” (The English Journal 92, no. 5, 2003), 63.
[vii] Melissa Thomas, “Teaching Fantasy” (The English Journal 92, no. 5, 2003), 61.
[viii] Melissa Thomas, “Teaching Fantasy” (The English Journal 92, no. 5, 2003), 61.
[ix] Melissa Thomas, “Teaching Fantasy” (The English Journal 92, no. 5, 2003), 63.
[x] James Prothero, “Fantasy, Science Fiction, and the Teaching of Values” (The English Journal 79, no. 3, 1990), 32.
[xi] Melissa Thomas, “Teaching Fantasy” (The English Journal 92, no. 5, 2003), 60.
[xii] James Prothero, “Fantasy, Science Fiction, and the Teaching of Values” (The English Journal 79, no. 3, 1990), 32.
[xiii] James Prothero, “Fantasy, Science Fiction, and the Teaching of Values” (The English Journal 79, no. 3, 1990), 33.