Poland's new literary canon

The Polish Minister of Education Roman Giertych, who is a member of the nationalist conservative League of Polish Families, wants to change the school curriculum to include more Christian devotional literature and fewer European classics. In his commentary columnist Bronislaw Wildstein attempts to understand the reasons behind the Ministry's move to change the official literary canon: "Poland's national tradition could explain the removal of Goethe - because he was German -, of Kafka - because he was a Jew (and wrote in German) - and perhaps even of Gombrowicz - because he was gay... But Dostoyevsky's removal doesn't fit in here because he was Russian (nationalist Poles are fond of their Slavic brothers) and a zealous Christian, and also anti-revolutionary and reactionary... There are rumours that online bookstores are already advertising the books Giertych has excluded. So is this all about advertising or is it just the usual nonsense?"

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