Literary History, Criticism and Canon

Abstract

Depending on perspective, the trajectory of twentieth-century canon-formative criticism in English is bound to look widely different to different observers. From one angle there seems to be a succession of defenders of relatively narrow codices of texts, in which the titles selected for inclusion may vary, but not the underlying principle of fastidiousness. From another there seems to be a growing inclusiveness of titles, even to the point where there is no longer any sense in applying any notion of literary canon whatsoever. What unites the spokespersons of either effort, however, is the centrality of the canon discussion for the general agenda of literary criticism.