Shall I Compare Thee To Textbooks? : The Selection and Tasks Associated with Shakespeare in Upper Secondary Textbooks

Sammanfattning: This essay has investigated the use of Shakespearean texts as well as tasks associated with those texts in upper secondary textbooks. The investigation looked at both which texts of Shakespeare’s are most frequent and how students are supposed to work with the texts. Furthermore the textbooks cover 20 years (1995-2015) and as such the study also analysed whether or not the selection and tasks have changed, i.e. whether they remain the same today as they did 20 years ago. The findings indicated that Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet were the two most frequent texts and that the tasks have gone from being individual to focusing on group work. The analysis also showed that while Shakespeare during the beginning of the 20 year period was the most dominant or sole author mentioned, this role has been reduced during more recent years. The conclusions drawn concerning the findings emphasise the syllabi and how they influence the content and format of the textbooks as well as the importance of canonicity.