The Swedish Academy's permanent secretary, Mats Malm, says in an interview with Dagens Nyheter that the institution will not participate in the government's work to produce a literary canon.
- Canon is a concept that is imbued with power and the exercise of power, says Mats Malm and continues:
- We at the Swedish Academy have no interest in participating in that type of governing document.
Mats Malm prefers that the Swedish Academy should be useful for the teachers in the school, for example by offering more through the department's "literature bank" with texts and tutorials for teaching literature.
To the newspaper's question about whether the Swedish Academy can imagine saying exactly which works should be included in a canon, the permanent sectarian answers "blank no", as he sees such as problematic.
- I don't believe in the idea of a manufactured cannon.
It is different from saying that certain works have achieved classic status.
There are many very competent teachers in the country, they themselves are the best at judging which literature to include in their classrooms.