Changing Spaces: Canonization of Anglophone World Literature

Abstract

AbstractCanonization, understood broadly as the complex processes in which some works and authors obtain a privileged position in literary culture, while others become less and less visible, takes place continually in the interplay between preferences among readers, critics and institutions. These can now be studied better thanks to new digital resources and social media. The canonization of world literatures is particularly complex as it traverses notions of national canons and sits uneasily between integration with Western literature and a counter-canonical stance. This article considers the uses of a differentiated view on canonization and how data resources that have been made available on the circulation and readership of authors can be used to qualify canonization. The relationship between the locally and globally oriented Anglophone writers and the growing importance of migrant writers is investigated, as well as the influence of world literature in English which is included for its influence not only on Anglophone canons but also canons of non-English literary cultures.