Expanding the Literary Canon While this essay can in no way claim to contain a fully representative sampling of what various scholars have contributed relative to the ongoing debate over the literary canon, I will attempt to highlight three distinct positions which are all informed by John Guillory's critical contributions to the canonical debate. First, I will discuss the concept of ideology and canon formation as Guillory first articulated it in his 1983 essay, "The Ideology of Canon Formation:
the Literary Canon In keeping with my more-or-less conservative views, it seems obvious that what is most lacking in the English culture-war debates is a little common sense and practicality. Take, for example, the question of the literary canon (by which I mean the canon of imaginative literature: fiction, poetry, and drama). In his preface to Falling Into Theory, David H. Richter articulates three basic positions on the issue of the standard or traditional canon: defend the canon, expand
Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is a superbly written novel, which in the opinion of this reviewer should not be remove the literary cannon. Twain’s novel is a coming of age story that teaches young people many valuable lessons and to some extend makes students reexamine their own lives and morals. The most common argument for its removal from the literary canon is that the novel is too racist; it offends black readers, perpetuates cheap slave-era stereotypes, and deserves no place on today’s
boundaries are diverse. Fanny Fern (1811-1872), was one of the writers who made a big splash with her fearless unconventionality during this literary renaissance. Her masterful use of satire and her belief that the ideal of individualism should include women, gained her enormous popularity and doomed her chances of being included in the American literary canon for over a century. Fanny Fernâs real name was Sarah Payson Willis Parton, but she used the pseudonym in all her legal affairs and with
and Caliban and Ariel as the exploited natives. Cesaire’s A Tempest is an effective response to Shakespeare’s The Tempest because he interprets it from the perspective of the colonized and raises a conflict with Shakespeare as an icon of the literary canon. In The Tempest by William Shakespeare one might argue that colonialism is a reoccurring theme throughout the play because of the slave-master relationship between Ariel and Caliban and Prospero. It is also noticeable through the major and
sculpting as the manipulation of a marble block until the figure within is set free. Just as a carving artist seeks to release its piece from rock, a literary artist desires his art form to be carved from an obscure idea into clear apprehension. The most beautiful of these art pieces are placed in a museum of their own right, the literary canon. A great part of literature’s beauty is the ability of the artist to present his purpose in indiscrete ways, in some degree or another, sliding his message
despite the influence of the women's movement, despite the explosion of work in nineteenth century American social history, and despite the new historicism that is infiltrating literary studies, the women, like Stowe, whose names were household words in the nineteenth century ... remain excluded from the literary canon. And while it has recently become fashionable to study their works as examples of cultural deformation, even critics who declare themselves feminists still refer to their novels as
Children in order to place his story outside the euro-centric tradition of literature, narrative and history. These traditions, appearing in the colonial period, have constructed a notion of universalism in literature where the ‘classics’ of the western canon have set the order of the day (Ashcroft 91-92). Additionally, history has been written with Europe as the subject of all interpretations of history (be they Whig, Tory, Marxist, etc.), thus constructing a master narrative which Chakrabarty calls ‘the
experienced the misfortune of having the artistry of his works obscured by a host of myths, half-truths, prejudices, and nonaesthetic issues. This great poet, has become a "classic". His fables, on which his Reputations rests, are part of the literary canon of French writers and are studied in schools. His other works, however, have been rediscovered and are the object of quite a few recent studies. (Carter, pg.46) Very little is known about the early part of La Fontaine’s life. He was born in Château-Thierry
'Literary canon' is a term used to describe a collection of ground-breaking books which have stood the test of time and warrant in-depth study because of their aesthetic beauty and universal appeal. A literary work may be considered worthy of canon status, if it meets the following criteria: the book must integrate themes, such as love, death and faith, which readers from an extensive range of backgrounds can relate to; it has to have persistent influence and express artistic quality; and it must
augment one’s own growing inner self. Reading deeply in the Canon will not make one a better or a worse person, a more useful or more harmful citizen. The mind’s dialogue with itself is not primarily a social reality. (Bloom) “All that the Western Canon can bring one is the proper use of one’s own solitude, that solitude whose final form is one’s confrontation with one’s own mortality.”(Bloom) Works Cited Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon. New York: Riverhead Books, 1994. Hoppenstand, Gary, Ray
usually lists of books thought as being essential reading. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.--a Pulitzer Prize winning historian--calls this list in his book The Disuniting of America, a "canon" or "canonical literature." A problem exists with this canon, at least Schlesinger claims there is. He states that the canon is being used "as an instrument of European oppression enforcing the hegemony of the white race, the male sex, and the capitalist class…" From my high school experience, I believe this
taught? Yes. Do I think Gatsby should be included in the literary canon? I think that question is irrelevant. This is because teachers, if educated well, should be able to determine the needs of the classroom Sometimes these needs go beyond or outside of the literary canon. I understand the relevance of the literary canon to English studies, but I also perceive the canon primarily as a tool or resource for the teaching of English. The canon also helps to preserve works of literature, but mere
The literary canon is those works considered by scholars, critics, and teachers to be the most important to read and study, which collectively constitute the “masterpieces” of literature. (Meyer 2175) In the past there has been much debate on whether non-fiction should be considered for inclusion in the canon, but non-fiction writers being considered part of the canon is not unheard of, and is already a reality – George Orwell, Henry David Thoreau, Ernest Hemingway- all had a significant body of
usually grouped under the common label of "post-structuralist theory," have contributed to making us sensitive to the politics of culture, in general, and of literature, in particular. Much thought has been given in the last few decades to how the literary canon emerges and holds its ground, and to the relations between canonical and non-canonical, between the centre and the margins. Post-colonial theorist Edward Said reminds us that "[t]he power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and
Creating a Living Canon: The Humanist Project of Uniting Ancient and Modern The humanist preoccupation with the glory of the ancients spans the entire length of the Italian Renaissance and surfaces in nearly all the writers from Petrarch to Castiglione. The precise use of classical writers varies depending on the purpose of the Renaissance writer’s particular work—they are held up as examples to be emulated by historians, as works essential to shaping good character in their readers by the educational
CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANON OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. YOU SHOULD FOCUS YOUR ANALYSIS ON THE INTERPLAY OF ORAL AND LITERARY TRADITIONS IN THESE CONTEXTS. Many critics have noted the complexities within Chaucer's The House of Fame, in particular, the complexities between the oral and the literary. The differences between these methods are constantly appearing; Chaucer is well aware of rapidly changing communicative practises and contrasts the preservation of utterance with the longevity of literary texts. He achieves
religious canon, and Chaucer was aware of this. In the tales which contain these three characters, Chaucer depicts the greed of these characters. The Reeve tells his fellow pilgrims in his tale of a miller who "was a thief ... of corn and meal, and sly at that; his habit was to steal" (Chaucer 125). The summoner in "The Friar's Tale" "drew large profits to himself thereby," and as the devil observes of him in this tale, "You're out for wealth, acquired no matter how" (Chaucer 312, 315). The canon in Part
contempt and pity - W.E.B. DuBois, 1903 When discussing a text that is placed firmly into an accepted category of ethnicity, it seems reasonable to look for allegories, tropes, and symbols that hearken back to the ancestral texts of that group's literary canon. Like a golden cord that catches the eye as it pokes up between the warp and woof of words, tradition development can be traced from the earliest texts, causing a student to point to the page and say, "The trope of the mask!" whereupon notes
This is a good question; Due to what American Literature stands for, who can be part of the literary canon? I think literature (American or otherwise) serves as a means by which one can examine a society's values, ideas, hopes, fears, and dreams through fiction or oral literature. Those who have had an impact on their society create something that many people will read of or look upon in different ethnicities, ages, social class, etc; However, does It always have to be an author or an writing documentation