Naming and Challenging Rape Culture in English Curriculum: A Framework for Teaching Canonical Texts with Contemporary Adaptations

ABSTRACT Acts of sexual violence and rape, as well as the ensuing treatment of survivors and those who perpetuate the crimes, are pervasive in canonical texts that populate mandated reading lists in secondary English classrooms. Given the outsized role the literary canon places in English curriculum, we believe English teachers must develop practices that grapple with rape culture and sexual violence in their classrooms. A practice we advocate for and develop in this article places canonical texts in conversation with young adult adaptations of the canonical source material. We draw on scholarship that positions young adult literature as a vehicle for addressing rape culture and sexual violence and scholarship that illustrates critical canonical teaching to demonstrate how both genres of text can work together to push against ideologies that normalise sexual violence.