09 Jul literary canon

The first place to start inour Chronological Study of Literature is understanding The Canon:

The Canon is a “list”of works and authors that are considered important enough to be preserved andtaken seriously. For example, back in the mid to late 1800’s, many people inthe eastern United States were leaving their homes, farms, businesses, etc. andgoing to the western United States in search of a new life. This idea can beseen in a lot of the old Western Movies that have come out over the years.Because this migration west was so common, it had a tendency to becomeromanticized. Even if people didn’t actually move west, they might have thoughtabout it or fantasized about it. To play on this, a type of writing came aboutcalled “The Dime Store Novel.” These were adventure stories aboutpeople going west and making a new life. There was much action in thesestories. There were usually tales about Indians, battles, and naturaldisasters. There was such a demand for these stories at the time thatpublishing companies hired writers who would sit for more than 10 hours a daycreating these Dime Store Novels.

Although the Dime Store Novelssold well and were popular during the 1800’s, they are not often studied inLiterature classes, and the stories rarely (if ever) appear in an Anthology,such as the one you have for our class. Although some of these Dime StoreNovels may be found in a library or some old copies may have survived, many ofthem are forgotten and gone forever. Dime Store Novels are NOT a part of theCanon.

At the same time, the Dime StoreNovels were being written in the mid to late 1800’s, Mark Twain was writingnovels such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and TheAdventures of Huckleberry Finn. Stephen Crane was writing novels suchas The Red Badge of Courage and short stories such as”The Open Boat.”  William Dean Howells was writing novels suchas The Rise of Silas Lapham. These works by authors such as MarkTwain, Stephen Crane, William Dean Howells and others are a part of the Canon.

The Canon is not an official listof works. It is just kind of an informal understanding of what is serious amongthose who study literature. It is also important to realize that the canonchanges over time. There are some works that are now studied and in theanthologies that weren’t there 20 years ago.  Also, the examples I gaveyou are just for the American Canon. Each country or culture usually has itsown canon of literature. There are some works that are so major that they arepart of the big canon; that is, they are studied by many cultures andcountries.

Prompt:

Who are some of yourfavorite authors? What are some of your favorite literary works? If you were tocreate your own literary canon, what author(s) would you include and why?Please share your thoughts on this topic