The canon

Canon: set of literary texts that are widely recognized for their importance, influence, originalty and stylistic brilliance.

Canon and the canon debate:

• Practical uses of the canon (limits material; shows shared frame of cultural reference)

Aspects of Canon

• Historicising the canon: Canon is never static, reflects historical development

• Politics of canon: Canon reflects values of a society and function of literature within a society (e.g. In Nazi Germany promotion of German lit. that was traditional and nationalist <---> Anti-canon)

• Canon is always controversial → Work in progress

Controversies of canon

• When is text canonical? → Who/What should be in canon?

• High-brow (carrying cultural prestige) vs- low-brow works (often seen as less prestigious)?

  • High-brow?:

    • Ulysses now seen as key work of modernist literature

    • But also a lot of criticism as it is chaotic and unmoral

    → Canon changes as our sense of literary value shifts