The Syllabus Exposed: Who’s Really Behind It?

In this episode of The Bibliofilles, Sophie and Chaya are back from their summer holidays with their September Book Club picks — The Year of the Rat by Harry Shukman and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde — before diving into a much bigger question: who actually decides what we read?

Inspired by new developments in Texas, where a mandatory school reading list includes more than 200 texts alongside Bible passages, Sophie and Chaya explore the politics of education, literary syllabuses and the power that comes with deciding which books students are exposed to.

They look back at their own experiences of studying English, from The Great Gatsby, Frankenstein and War Poetry to The Go-Between, and ask whether students should have more choice over the books they study.

The conversation then takes a deeper turn into university funding, foreign donations and the influence money can have on education, research and academic institutions. How much influence should donors have? Where does university funding come from? And can we really separate money, politics and what gets taught?

Plus, Sophie and Chaya reveal the books they think should be on everyone's syllabus, including Toni Morrison, The Secret History, Giovanni's Room, Never Let Me Go, 1984 and more.

Is there really such a thing as a neutral syllabus? And who gets to decide what the next generation reads?

📚 Books Mentioned The Year of the Rat by Harry Shukman 👉 https://link.amazon/B04jA3HWV

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 👉 https://link.amazon/B0bUQ9I4G

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 👉 https://link.amazon/B0gNt1tL0

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 👉 https://link.amazon/B0awcdlLf

Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington 👉 https://link.amazon/B0bGQuaRH

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare 👉 https://link.amazon/B0cEz42Jj

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 👉 https://link.amazon/B01PWmQRu

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White 👉 https://link.amazon/B0hPvrxRS

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 👉 https://link.amazon/B0dxjifSF

The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope 👉 https://link.amazon/B0iNQ493Z Sula by Toni Morrison 👉 https://link.amazon/B025v28K1

Beloved by Toni Morrison 👉 https://link.amazon/B04pm2BVP

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 👉 https://link.amazon/B064Bls4P

The Secret History by Donna Tartt 👉 https://link.amazon/B0iBtIh8V

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin 👉 https://link.amazon/B06CMKsOs

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 👉 https://link.amazon/B05B8w9ik

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell 👉 https://link.amazon/B04hFuY1N

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 👉 https://link.amazon/B0c6tqJ31

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 👉 https://link.amazon/B0bVI15Aa

Mythos by Stephen Fry 👉 https://link.amazon/B0cfHtSmF

I, Claudius by Robert Graves 👉 https://link.amazon/B01YLuLg1

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall 👉 https://link.amazon/B01ofGRPf

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez 👉 https://link.amazon/B0bQKuN04

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien 👉 https://link.amazon/B01V4NdmR

Translations by Brian Friel 👉 https://link.amazon/B013y1XWF

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 👉 https://link.amazon/B0gxXgiSi

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell 👉 https://link.amazon/B05EuH7Yh

📚 September Book Club Picks: The Year of the Rat — Harry Shukman The Picture of Dorian Gray — Oscar Wilde

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