Exploring Opportunities for Literary Literacy with E-Literature: To Infinity and Beyond

Introduction Whilst literature has always been an essential aspect of the English and literacy curriculum, its priority has varied over time. Beavis (2014) highlights its place as 'sometimes hovering in the sidelines, sometimes dominating other dimensions, or sometimes working in an integrated partnership with literacy and language' (p. 88). The Australian Curriculum: English documents (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2016) foreground literature in an integrated fashion as one of three interrelated strands. It is the intention that each strand (Literature, Language and Literacy) is integrated in creative ways in order to build student knowledge, understandings and skills in English. As students engage in literary ways, they are doing so through the exploration of language and they develop literacy with literary texts. Whilst there is an emphasis on integration, the designation of the literature strand is to encourage classroom teachers of all year levels (from primary through to Year 10) 'not only to use texts conventionally understood as "literary", but also to engage students in examining, evaluating and discussing texts in increasingly sophisticated and informed "literary" ways' (ACARA, 2016). The types of literary texts cited for interpretation, evaluation, appreciation and creation in the Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2016) include novels, poetry, short stories, plays, film and multimodal texts in a variety of forms--spoken, print and digital or online. Of importance is that literary texts draw 'from a range of historical and cultural contexts that are valued for their form and style and are recognised as having enduring or artistic value', as well as 'some that attract contemporary attention', also allowing for student choice (ACARA, 2016). ACARA (2016) foregrounds teachers and schools 'as best placed to make decisions about the selection of texts in their teaching and learning programs to address the content in the Australian Curriculum: English while also meeting the needs of the students in their classes'. ACARA further elaborates that when considering text selection teachers should judge a text for its: potential for enriching the lives of students, expanding the scope of their experience ... and the capacity for language to deepen those experiences. It builds students' knowledge about how language can be used for aesthetic ends, to create particular emotional, intellectual or philosophical effects. (ACARA, 2016) The influence of the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) has impacted on the nature of literary texts, with literature available in multimodal and digital text forms. These types of texts have been coined as e-literature by some, although definitions vary in meaning. For my purposes in this article, I define e-literature as 'a computer-based genre that merges literary arts with multimedia design' (Luce-Kapler, Dobson, Samara, Iftody, & Davis, 2006). Not only are ICTs impacting on the form of texts, but as Hunt (2000) highlighted, 'electronic media are changing how we tell stories, the nature of stories, and what we understand to be narratives' (p. 111). As Beavis (2014) and others have reiterated, it is not the death or disappearance of what we have come to understand as children's literature, but rather that these new digital forms of narratives 'sit alongside print, oral, and picture book genres' (p. 89). If we consider that young children and adolescents are engaging with e-literature in their lives outside of school, then surely it has a place in the classroom. Mackey (1994) emphasised that, if children's literary experiences are only limited to picture books, novels and poetry, then we disregard the multimedia skills and knowledge that students possess from their life-world experiences. Unsworth (2006) suggested that e-literature has the potential to 'bridge the inter-generational divide in the English classroom' (p. …