The Concept of Dissimilitude in Teaching Literature: Comparative Analysis of Syllabi for the First Cycle of Education in Croatia and Serbia

Abstract

This article focuses on the presence of the concept of dissimilitude in the selection of literary texts for children prescribed by the syllabi in Croatia and Serbia. The comparative analysis is based on providing a list of texts for the first cycle of education in the two syllabi through a concept-based (transcending the text) observation of dissimilitude, as well as a content-based (text-inherent) analysis of the presence of dissimilitude in these texts in its broadest sense. In the literary texts prescribed by the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia, the field of dissimilitude thematization can largely be attributed to the nature of the literary work itself, rather than the curricular or concept-based education policy behind the current syllabi. The paper presents results of the analyses of the two syllabi that are conceptually quite different. The aim of this paper is to compare educational strategies for teaching literature in two countries – Croatia and Serbia – by analysing the presence of dissimilitude in a selection of literary texts.