The Western Canon
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages is a 1994 book by critic Harold Bloom about western literature in which he defends the concept of the Western canon by discussing 26 mostly English-language writers who he considers to be central to the canon.
School of resentment
The term “school of resentment” was coined by philosopher Richard Rorty to describe scholars who want to expand the Western Canon by including more works by authors from minority groups, regardless of aesthetic merit or historical influence.
Summary
Richard Bloom defends the concept of the Western canon by discussing 26 writers he sees as central to the canon in The Western Canon (1962), which argues against what he calls the “school of resentment,” which includes feminist literary criticism and Marxist literary criticism.
Reception
People who merely describe what is happening now don’t last; I like D. H. Lawrence, though I hate him in some ways, and Jane Austen, too. A culture’s canon is an evolving consensus of individual canons; people who merely describe what is happening now don’t last.
References
Riverhead Books published Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages in 1994, p. 492. Ladina Bezzola Lambert edited Shifting the Scene: Shakespeare in European Culture in 1998, p. 484.
Which books are part of the Western canon?
Books from the Western Canon
- Don Quixote (Paperback) Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
- The Divine Comedy (Hardcover) Dante Alighieri.
- The Aeneid (Paperback) Virgil.
- The Canterbury Tales (Paperback) Geoffrey Chaucer.
- Pride and Prejudice (Paperback) F.
- Pride and Prejudice (
How many books are in the Western canon?
Along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, he is regarded as one of the first contemporary Arabic writers to explore themes of existentialism. Over the course of his 70-year career, he published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays, and many of his works have been adapted into Egyptian and foreign films.
What are the books in the cannon?
Canon Books of the Past
- F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Paperback)
- Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Paperback)
- Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Paperback)
- Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (Paperback)
- Jane Eyre’s Jane Eyre (Paperback)
- Sense and Sensibility (Paperback)
- Slaughterhouse-Five (Paperback)
Who is in the literary canon?
The Western Canon, published in 1994 by literary critic Harold Bloom, lists 26 “immortal” authors, including Homer, William Shakespeare, and Virginia Woolf.
What makes a text canonical?
The literary canon can be defined narrowly as that which is accepted as authentic (as in distinguishing canonical from apocryphal works in relation to the Bible or Shakespeare), but it is more commonly defined as that which is assumed to be ‘good’ literature, if not the ‘best’.
What books to read if you like a professor?
How to Read Literature Like a Professor is a New York Times bestseller by Thomas C. Foster, published in 2003, that offers interpretations of common themes, concepts, and symbols found in literature.
Is Jane Austen part of the canon?
Jane Austen is one of the most well-known female authors of the nineteenth century, and her works have become part of the literary canon due to differing perspectives on her works and various approaches to reading and interpreting her works.
How is the literary canon formed?
On the one hand, canon formation in the cultural field of literature means that the artistic quality of certain literary works is recognized; on the other hand, it means that certain writers and genres are accepted by all of society and acquire legal status and become part of the canon.
Where does the Western canon start?
Start with Lysistrata, his timeless antiwar comedy, and work your way outward; Clouds, Wasps, and Birds are among my favorites. Sophocles, The Complete Plays. In Greek theater, comedy and tragedy were inextricably linked.
Who decides the canon?
Headcanon is your personal interpretation, but it should not contradict actual canon. Canon is determined by the author/owner of the IPs (or any 3rd parties granted permission to write extended canon).
Is 1984 in the literary canon?
The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, and Frankenstein are examples of literary canons.
Is Harry Potter in the literary canon?
It’s difficult to imagine a time when children’s literature was a fledgling genre with limited distribution, especially in light of the Potter books’ ubiquity.
What is the reading canon?
The goal of a school literary canon is for every student to know each of the books sufficiently well, for example, by having read the book or having it read to them. This could be a chosen text for reading instruction or a book used for class story-time.
What is the English literary canon?
The literary canon is frequently understood to refer to a group of authors or works that academics, historians, and teachers agree are worthy of study: these are the texts that are regularly in print, are studied for school exams and in universities, and have’status.’
Is Sylvia Plath in the literary canon?
Sylvia Plath is not one of the women who have been left out of the literary canon for reasons unknown or unjustified, and I bring her up today to try to understand why she survived patriarchal editing out of historical authors when so many other women did not.