Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:24:26.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A European canon of literature?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Douwe Fokkema
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For various reasons, the canon of literary works to be read in school has been criticized in recent years. The status of the canon, both as a concept with hierarchical connotations and as a particular set of texts, has been affected by developments in literary scholarship as well as by political views and new educational goals. However, teaching literature without the regulative idea of a canon is not very satisfactory. If we wish to select a limited number of literary texts to be taught in secondary schools, some consensus would be necessary about the functions of literature as well as about didactic goals, which in turn are related to concepts of morality and political exigencies. For instance, one may decide to teach not only a national ‘great tradition’, but to introduce a European perspective by incorporating works from abroad into the curriculum, if necessary in translation. In view of the fact that Europe is a multicultural community, it is of long-term interest to guarantee the pluriformity of any school canon of literature.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 21 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Wellek, R. (1968) Discriminations: Further Concepts of Criticism. New Haven and London: Yale UP.Google Scholar
2.Nemoianu, V., and Royal, R. (Eds) (1991) The Hospitable Canon: Essays on Literary Play, Scholarly Choice, and Popular Pressures. Philadelphia and Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Gorak, J. (1991) The Making of the Modern Canon: Genesis and Crisis of a Literary Idea. London and Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Athlone.Google Scholar
4.Bohn, V. (1982) In dieser Problematik denken können. Diskussion Deutsch 13 165–168.Google Scholar
5.Müller-Michaels, H. (1982) Wie lächerlich wollen wir denn aussehen? Diskussion Deutsch 13 598–602.Google Scholar
6.Lewis, D. K. (1969) Convention: A Philosophical Study. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.Google Scholar
7.Kermode, F. (1988) Canons. Dutch Quarterly Review 18 258–270.Google Scholar
8.Rosengren, K. E. (1968) Sociological Aspects of the Literary System. Lund: Natur och Kultur.Google Scholar
9.Kaat, J. (1987) The Reception of Dutch Fictional Prose in Great Britain. PhD Thesis, University of Hull.Google Scholar
10.Kochan, D. C. (Ed.) (1990) Literaturdidaktik—Lektürekanon—Literaturunterricht. Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik, 30. Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi.Google Scholar
11.Poltermann, A. (1990) Schulkanon und literarische Avantgarde: Zwei Beispiele Zur Funktion der literarischen Übersetzung in der Zielliteratur.Proceedings of the 13th Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association(München: Iudicium,1990):203–212.Google Scholar
12.Moerbeek, J.Canonvorming en canondiscussie in Nederland en Vlaanderen. In progress.Google Scholar
13.Fokkema, D., and Ibsch, E. (1992) Literatuurwetenschap en cultuuroverdracht. Muiderberg: Coutinho.Google Scholar
14.Schmidt, S. J. (1982) Foundations for the Empirical Study of Literature. Translated by de Beaugrande, R., Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar
15.Bertoni Del Guercio, G. (1988) Littératures et système littéraire. Le Français dans le monde (February–March), numéro special: Littérature et enseignement, le perspective du lecteur: 149–156.Google Scholar
16.Zwaan, R. A. (1993) Aspects of Literary Comprehension: A Cognitive Approach. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.Aristotle, (1920) On the Art of Poetry. Translated by Bywater, I., with a Preface by G. Murray, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
18.Musil, R. (1978) Gesammelte Werke, Frisé, Adolf (Ed.) 9 vols. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt. See vol. 8, p. 1351.Google Scholar
19.Altieri, C. (1990) Canons and Consequences: Reflections on the Ethical Force of Imaginative Ideals. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP.Google Scholar
20.Gide, A. (1951) Journal 1889–1939. Pléiade. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
21.Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., and Tiffin, H. (1989) The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London and New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar