Debating the Canon

LEE MORRISSEY is Professor of English at Clemson University, USA.

Introduction: 'Canon, Repertoire, or, What's in a Metaphor?' 'Literature and the Dignity of Man' (1709); R.Steele Selections from the 'Pleasures of the Imagination' series (1711); J.Addison 'Of the Standard of Taste' (1757); D.Hume 'Preface to the Plays of William Shakespeare' (1765); S.Johnson 'We Never Quarrel About Religion' (1828); R.J.Iroquois 'The Function of Criticism at the Present Time' (1865); M.Arnold 'Hebraism and Hellenism' (1869); M.Arnold 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' (1919)' T.S.Eliot 'Mass Civilisation and Minority Culture' (1930); F. R.Leavis 'Theses on the Philosophy of History' (1940); W.Benjamin 'Reading and the Growth of the Mind' (1940); M.Adler 'Odysseus' Scar' (1953); E.Auerbach 'National Culture' (1961); F.Fanon 'Commitment' (1962); T.Adorno 'On the Abolition of the English Department' (1968); N.W.Thiong'o 'Colonialist Criticism' (1974); C.Achebe 'The Female Tradition' (1977); E.Showalter 'A Map for Rereading: Or, Gender and the Interpretation of Literary Texts' (1980); A.Kolodny 'Melodramas of Beset Manhood: How Theories of American Fiction Exclude Women Authors' (1981); N.Baym 'The Field of Cultural Production' (1983); P.Bourdieu 'To Reclaim a Legacy: Text of Report on Humanities in Education' (1984); W.Bennett 'Sexual Politics and Critical Judgment' (1985); E.Meese ''But is it Any Good?': The Institutionalization of Literary Value' (1985); J.Tomkins 'Rise of the Fragmented Curriculum' (1987); E.D.Hirsch 'Introduction: Our Virtue', 'The Student and the University', The Conclusion', (1987); A.Bloom 'Volume I: Introduction' (1987); M.Bernal 'Contingencies of Value' (1988); B.Hernstein Smith From History and Value (1989); F.Kermode 'Native American Literature and the Canon' (1989); A.Krupat 'Canons and Differences' (1990); C.Altieri From Death of Literature (1990); A.Kernan 'Preface' 'Speaking Against the Humanities' (1990); R.Kimball 'Canon Fathers and Myth Universe' (1990); L.Robinson 'The Shaping of the American Literary Canon' (1991); P.Lauter 'Canon to the Right of Me' (1991); K.Pollitt From Loose Canons (1992); H.L.Gates 'Turning Conflict into Community' (1992); G.Graff 'Canonical and Noncanonical: The Current Debate,' (1993); J.Guillory 'Rites of Interpretation' (1993); V.Lambropoulos 'An Elegy for the Canon' (1994); H.Bloom 'Higher Education and American Liberalism' (1994); M.Bérubé 'Connecting Empire to Secular Interpretation' (1994); E.Said From 'To Whom To Give To' (1995); J.Derrida From The Great Books (1996); D.Denby 'Ancient Myths of Cultural Dependancy' (1996); M.Lefkowitz 'The 'New' Liberal Education' (1997); M.C.Nussbaum From Symptoms of Culture (1998); M.Garber 'On the Inspirational Value of Great Works of Literature' (1998); R.Rorty 'A Flock of Cultures: A Trivial Proposal' (1998); R.Scholes 'Canons, Creativity, and Literary Expression' (2000); R.Alter From 'Gatsby', from Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (2003); A.Nafisi