Lit in Colour, a campaign launched by Penguin and the Runnymede Trust to diversify English literature, has recently released its five-year progress report. ‘Diversity’ for this campaign doesn’t mean diversity of thought, style, genre, poetic form or historical period, however. It refers to promoting writers on the basis of their BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) credentials while insisting that English Literature – cumulatively one of the most staggering achievements in Western civilisation – is too white for the modern classroom.

Is it the job of the curriculum to play catch-up with demographic shifts? Is it the role of literary education to ‘reflect’ the present day, or synthesise history?

As well as prioritising present-day representation over heritage, these initiatives operate on the somewhat patronising premise that ethnic minority pupils living in Britain better relate to literature written by people who share their skin colour – and that BAME authors should be chosen on the basis of identity rather than merit.

Inevitably, intersectionality rears its head: we are assured that ‘while Lit in Colour focuses primarily on connecting students with more Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers, we have been mindful of intersectionality throughout the research process’. Meanwhile, canonical texts must be taught in a way that ‘fully acknowledges and engages with their socio-historical contexts’, specifically the British Empire. One ‘barrier’ to diversity is the fact that UK teachers themselves are ‘overwhelmingly white’, the report writes with an astonishing note of umbrage. As Bernardine Evaristo said in 2015, the campaign aims ‘to redress an education system overwhelmingly delivered through a white filter’.

Despite Lit in Colour working in conjunction........

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