In this paper I discuss the necessity of combining ethnographical and curriculum studies approaches to grasp an understanding of the classroom interaction as being historically situated or related to different school subject traditions. In this discussion I give examples from my earlier research on teaching as conversational genres in the teaching of literature, within the two subjects of Swedish in UpperSecondary School in Sweden. Special attention is paid to how the four analytically discerned conversational genres – The Teaching Examination, The Informal Book Talk, The Text Oriented Talk, and The Culturally Oriented Talk – differ in purpose, structure, patterns of interaction and view of literature. Finally I discuss how these conversational genres can be understood as related to the three dominating selective traditions of the school subject Swedish: Swedish as a Profiency Subject, Swedish as a Higher Subject of Bildung and Swedish as an Experienced-based Subject.