With that quote in mind, consider this definiton:
The Western canon is a canon of books and art (and specifically a set with very loose boundaries) that has allegedly been highly influential in shaping Western culture. The selection of a canon is important to the theory of educational perennialism. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_canon)
American literary critic Harold Bloom's The Western Canon (1994) is his attempt to define the Western Canon. People will always argue as to what works should or should not be part of the canon. Some people will also argue that there is no need for a canon. Nevertheless, here is a link to a copy of the appendices to Bloom's book (NB: I have cut and pasted the parts you will need for your assignment further down in this post):
http://www.literarycritic.com/bloom.htm
Assignment details:
- Research any three books in section A or B. I have provided this below.
- Do not use a book that anyone else in our class has used.
- Explain why they are part of Bloom's canon.
- Do not use texts listed in sections C or D.
A. The Theocratic Age
"Since the literary canon is at issue here, I include only those religious, philosophical, historical, and scientific writings that are themselves of great aesthetic interest. I would think that, of all the books that are in this first list, once the reader is conversant with the Bible, Homer, Plato, the Athenian dramatists, and Virgil, the crucial work is the Koran....
"I have included some Sanskrit works, scriptures and fundamental literary texts, because of their influence on the Western canon. The immense wealth of ancient Chinese literature is mostly a sphere apart from Western literary tradition and is rarely conveyed adequately in the translations available to us." (p. 531)
The Ancient Near East
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Egyptian Book of the Dead
Holy Bible (King James Version)
The Apocrypha
Sayings of the Fathers (Pirke Aboth)
Ancient India (Sanskrit)
Mahabharata
Bhagavad-Gita
Ramayana
The Ancient Greeks
Homer. Iliad; Odyssey
Hesiod. Works and Days; Theogony
Archilochos
Sappho, Alkman
Pindar. Odes
Aeschylus. Oresteia; Seven Against Thebes; Prometheus Bound; Persians
Aeschylus. Suppliant Women
Sophocles. Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone; Electra
Sophocles. Ajax; Women of Trachis; Philoctetes
Euripides. Cyclops; Heracles; Alcestis; Hecuba
Euripedes. Bacchae; Orestes; Andromache; Medea; Ion; Hippolytus; Helen; Iphigenia at Aulis
Aristophanes. The Birds; The Clouds; The Frogs; Lysistrata
Arisotophanes. The Knights; The Wasps; The Assemblywomen
Herodotus. The Histories
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian Wars
The Pre-Socratics (Heraclitus, Empedocles)
Plato. Dialogues
Aristotle. Poetics; Ethics
Hellenistic Greeks
Menander. The Girl from Samos
Longinus. On the Sublime
Callimachus. Hymns and Epigrams
Theocritus. Idylls
Plutarch. Lives; Moralia
Aesop. Fables
Lucian. Satires
The Romans
Plautus. Pseudolus; The Braggart Soldier; The Rope; Amphitryon
Terence. The Girl from Andros; The Eunuch; The Mother-in-Law
Lucretius. The Way Things Are
Cicero. On the Gods
Horace. Odes; Epistles; Satires
Persius. Satires
Catullus. Attis and Other Poems
Virgil. Aeneid; Eclogues; Georgics
Lucan. Pharsalia
Ovid. Metamorphoses; The Art of Love; Heroides
Juvenal. Satires
Martial. Epigrams
Seneca. Tragedies, particularly Medea and Hercules Furens
Petronius. Satyricon
Apuleius. The Golden Ass
The Middle Ages: Latin, Arabic, and the Vernacular Before Dante
Augustine, Saint. City of God; Confessions
The Koran (Al-Qur'an)
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Nights
The Poetic Edda
Snorri Sturluson. The Prose Edda
The Nibelungen Lied
Eschenbach, Wolfram von. Parzival
Troyes, Chrétien de. Yvain: The Knight of the Lion
Beowulf
The Poem of the Cid,
Pisan, Christine de. The Book of the City of Ladies
Pedro, Diego de San. Prison of Love
B. The Aristocratic Age
"It is a span of five hundred years from Dante's Divine Comedy through Goethe's Faust, Part Two [1321-1832], an era that gives us a huge body of reading in five major literatures: Italian, Spanish, English, French, and German. In this and in the remaining lists, I sometimes do not mention individual works by a canonical master, and in other instances I attempt to call attention to authors and books that I consider canonical but rather neglected. From this list onward, many good writers who are not quite central are omitted...." (p. 534)
Italy
Dante. The Divine Comedy; The New Life
Petrarch. Lyric Poems; Selections
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron
Boiardo, Matteo Maria. Orlando Innamorato
Ariosto, Ludovico. Orlando Furioso
Buonarroti, Michelangelo. Sonnets and Madrigals
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince; The Mandrake, a Comedy
Vinci, Leonardo da. Notebooks
Castiglione, Baldassare. The Book of the Courtier
Stampa, Gaspara. Sonnets and Madrigals
Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Painters
Cellini, Benvenuto. Autobiography
Tasso, Torquato. Jerusalem Delivered
Bruno, Giordano. The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast
Campanella, Tommaso. Poems; The City of the Sun
Vico, Giambattista. Principles of a New Science
Goldoni, Carlo. The Servant of Two Masters
Alfieri, Vittorio. Saul
Portugal
Camoëns, Luis de. The Lusiads
Ferreira, Antònio. Poetry
Spain
Manrique, Jorge. Coplas
Rojas, Fernando de. La Celestina
Anonymous. Lazarillo de Tormes.
Quevedo, Francisco de. Visions; Satirical Letter of Censure
León, Fray Luis de. Poems
Cross, St. John of the. Poems
Góngora, Luis de. Sonnets; Soledades
Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote; Exemplary Stories
Vega, Lope de. La Dorotea; Fuente Ovejuna; Lost in a Mirror; The Knight of Olmedo
Molina, Tirso de. The Trickster of Seville
Barca, Pedro Calderón de la. Life is a Dream; The Mayor of Zalamea; The Mighty Magician; The Doctor of His Own Honor
Cruz, Sor Juana Inés de la. Poems
England and Scotland
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales; Troilus and Criseyde
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte D'Arthur
Dunbar, William. Poems
Skelton, John. Poems
More, Sir Thomas. Utopia
Wyatt, Sir Thomas. Poems
Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of. Poems
Sidney, Sir Philip. The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia; Astrophel and Stella; An Apology for Poetry
Brooke, Fulke Greville, Lord. Poems
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene; The Minor Poems
Ralegh, Sir Walter. Poems
Marlowe, Christopher. Poems and Plays
Drayton, Michael. Poems
Daniel, Samuel. Poems; A Defence of Ryme
Nashe, Thomas. The Unfortunate Traveller
Kyd, Thomas. The Spanish Tragedy
Shakespeare, William. Plays and Poems
Campion, Thomas. Songs
Donne, John. Poems; Sermons
Jonson, Ben. Poems, Plays, and Masques
Bacon, Francis. Essays
Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy
Browne, Sir Thomas. Religio Medici; Hydriotaphia, or Urne-Buriall; The Garden of Cyrus
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan
Herrick, Robert. Poems
Carew, Thomas. Poems
Lovelace, Richard. Poems
Marvell, Andrew. Poems
Herbert, George. The Temple
Traherne, Thomas. Centuries, Poems, and Thanksgivings
Vaughan, Henry. Poetry
Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of. Poems
Crashaw, Richard. Poems
Fletcher, Francis Beaumont and John. Plays
Chapman, George. Comedies, Tragedies, Poems
Ford, John. 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
Marston, John. The Malcontent
Webster, John. The White Devil; The Duchess of Malfi
Rowley, Thomas Middleton and William. The Changeling
Tourneur, Cyril. The Revenger's Tragedy
Massinger, Philip. A New Way to Pay Old Debts
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim's Progress
Walton, Izaak. The Compleat Angler
Milton, John. Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained; Lycidas, Comus, and the Minor Poems; Samson Agonistes; Areopagitica
Aubrey, John. Brief Lives
Taylor, Jeremy. Holy Dying
Butler, Samuel. Hudibras
Dryden, John. Poetry and Plays; Critical Essays
Otway, Thomas. Venice Preserv'd
Congreve, William. The Way of the World; Love for Love
Swift, Jonathan. A Tale of a Tub; Gulliver's Travels; Shorter Prose Works; Poems
Etherege, Sir George. The Man of Mode
Pope, Alexander. Poems
Gay, John. The Beggar's Opera
Boswell, James. Life of Johnson; Journals
Johnson, Samuel. Works
Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful; Reflections on the Revolution in France
Morgann, Maurice. An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff
Collins, William. Poems
Farquhar, George. The Beaux' Strategem; The Recruiting Officer
Wycherley, William. The Country Wife; The Plain Dealer
Smart, Christopher. Jubilate Agno; A Song to David
Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield; She Stoops to Conquer; The Traveller; The Deserted Village
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. The School of Scandal; The Rivals
Cowper, William. Poetical Works
Crabbe, George. Poetical Works
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders; Robinson Crusoe; A Journal of the Plague Year
Richardson, Samuel. Clarissa; Pamela; Sir Charles Grandison
Fielding, Henry. Joseph Andrews; The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Smollett, Tobias. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker; The Adventures of Roderick Random
Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman; A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy
Burney, Fanny. Evelina
Steele, Joseph Addison and Richard. The Spectator
France
Froissart, Jean. Chronicles; The Song of Roland
Villon, François. Poems
Montaigne, Michel de. Essays
Rabelais, François. Gargantua and Pantagruel
Navarre, Marguerite de. The Heptameron
Bellay, Joachim Du. The Regrets
Scève, Maurice. Délie
Ronsard, Pierre. Odes, Elegies, Sonnets
Commynes, Philippe de. Memoirs
d'Aubigné, Agrippa. Les Tragiques
Garnier, Robert. Mark Antony; The Jewesses
Corneille, Pierre. The Cid; Polyeucte; Nicomède; Horace; Cinna; Rodogune
Rochefoucauld, François de La. Maxims
Fontaine, Jean de La. Fables
Moliere. The Misanthrope; Tartuffe; The School for Wives
Moliere. The Learned Ladies; Don Juan; School for Husbands; Ridiculous Precieuses; The Would-Be Gentleman
Moliere. The Miser; The Imaginary Invalid
Pascal, Blaise. Pensées
Bosuet, Jacques-Bénigne. Funerary Orations
Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas. The Art of Poetry; Lutrin
Racine, Jean. Phaedra; Andromache; Britannicus; Athaliah
Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de. Seven Comedies
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Confessions; Émile; La Nouvelle Héloïse
Voltaire. Zadig; Candide; Letters on England; The Lisbon Earthquake
Prevost, Abbe. Manon Lescaut
Fayette, Madame de La. The Princess of Cleves
Chamfort, Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de. Products of the Perfected Civilization
Diderot, Denis. Rameau's Nephew
Laclos, Choderlos de. Dangerous Liaisons
Germany
Erasmus. In Praise of Folly
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust, Parts One and Two; Dichtung und Wahrheit; Egmont
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Elective Affinities; The Sorrows of Young Werther; Poems; Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship; Wilhelm Meister's Years of Wandering
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Italian Journey; Verse Plays; Hermann and Dorothea; Roman Elegies
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Venetian Epigrams; West-Eastern Divan
Schiller, Friedrich. The Robbers; Mary Stuart; Wallenstein; Don Carlos; On the Naïve and Sentimental in Literature
Lessing, Gotthold. Laocoön; Nathan the Wise
Hölderlin, Freidrich. Hymns and Fragments; Selected Poems
Kleist, Heinrich von. Five Plays; Stories
1 comment:
The Praise of Folly - ERASMUS
Erasmus was an influential friend of Martin Luther. In Praise of Folly is a part of Bloom’s cannons because it is a reference to enlightenment and the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. This essay is also a reminder of what the true Christianity really means. Soren Kierkegaard’s philosophy is very similar to the message that Erasmus is trying to present in this essay. Kierkegaard states that our Christianity is not really Christianity but Christendom. Not only did this essay contribute to the Renaissance movement, like all literary works, this was an allusion to earlier mythologies. Enconuim Moriae is the Latin title of this novel and is a pun as it means “The Praise of More”. Sir Thomas More was a good friend of Erasmus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Folly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soren_Kierkegaard
Utopia – Sir Thomas More
Utopia can be considered to be an allusion of Plato’s The Republic. Although More does not intend anything that is depicted in his book but instead, it requires readers to transvalue More’s actual intent. This book is a blue print of what will happen to our society if the so-called evils are taken away, e.g. poverty and misery. This is part of Bloom’s canons because it teaches us that we cannot trade freedom to get rid of poverty and misery. This book also influences contemporary literature such as 1984 and V for Vendetta.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia
The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri
This collection of poems is a part of Bloom’s canons because it influences the western society’s view on the afterlife. It outlines the different levels of hell. It is a depiction of where people would fall if they commit certain sins. For instance, before Dante and his tour guide entered hell, they witnessed people that neither did any good or evil. This includes the outcasts, Pontius Pilate and Pope Celestine V. It also outlined the events and contents of purgatory and heaven. The Divine Comedy is very influential in our western society because it helped us imagine an idea of what hell, purgatory and heaven would look like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy
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