(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

The English Literary Canon

            The English Literary Canon is perceived as the paradigm of exquisite literature bound with key concepts fundamental to our understanding and exploration of societal and political values, rendering it to be widely admired by all. Scholars uphold works from the Literary Canon with the highest regard and proceed to manifest these works into school curriculum for literary study due to their powerful influential nature and complex ideas embedded in these texts. The Literary Canon allows us to dissemble and delve into a multitude of perspectives enabling us to gain an insightful and critical view upon these widely studied texts. .
             The English Canon consists of selective pieces of work that are thoroughly examined by highly acclaimed critics and withstood centuries, with solidity, portraying a sense of validity. The Literary Canon is regularly refined and filtered with new regulations to advocate those texts encompassed with profound messages and their ability to handle delicate issues such as the human condition and the evolution of cultural values that are still prevalent to this day, this exemplifies the notion that some of the beliefs that we upheld in our modern age may have been overlooked in earlier eras, an example of this would be the concept of female representation. The English Canon acts as a guide for scholars as it provides a diverse range of sophisticated texts that are guaranteed to satisfy and enhance cultivated thinking. .
             The gateway to entering the English Canon is barbed by many obstacles; these include economic, gender, social and political factors. This has led to an increasing amount of criticism argued upon the speculation of biased opinions presented by professors and authoritative bodies that manage the English Canon. It also consists of predominantly white male figures, the canon did not mean to do this but simply reflected cultural context. Works from these authors and poets do not receive the recognition they deserve.


Essays Related to The English Literary Canon

1. Literary Genre: Dystopian Fiction

In literature written today, the criteria for inclusion in the traditional English cannon includes the most well-known pieces of laic English literature that serve to ground the culture as a whole in both representation, and attraction. A piece of literature will be acknowledged with acceptation into a literary canon. ... It is not possible to argue about the contents of a canon, when a canon for that genre does not exist in the first place. ... This is not meant to devalue what effect taste has to do with literature and understanding literary movements. ... Quality from my perspective has t...

  • Word Count: 638
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. The canonic classics of the Western tradition'

This essay aims to identify some of the factors which have combined to generate this reproducibility, by trying to clarify what is meant by a classic and how and why these texts should be elevated to the ranks of the literary canon. ... However, the definitions of the two are intertwined historically because the literary canon has taken on a similar nature to the biblical canon. ... If this metaphor is applied to the literary canon it would suggest, sorting the wheat from the chaff: this means that a decision is taken at some point in a text's life as to its value or inherent worth. ....

  • Word Count: 2215
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Literary Genres

This is because there is no precise definition of what literature and/or literary is, even more so, accurate qualifications to be included in a literary genre. ... Literature is a canon which consists of those works in language by which a community defines itself through the course of its history. ... Moreover, personal essays and researched articles are not literary works because they are not part of the literary genre. ... I remember my English 11 professor pointing out the difference between Literature with a capital "L,"" and literature with a small "l."" ... The academe has function...

  • Word Count: 1508
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Canterbury Tales

This book having 22 tales with in is a classic of the English literature. ... The Canterbury Tales is classified as one of the hundredths of literary arts to be listed as a banned book. ... Thomas's Becket , an English martyr. ... Two men ride up after the tale of the second Nun, a Canon and a Yeoman. ... The priest buys the trick for 40 pounds and then immediately the Canon leaves. ...

  • Word Count: 2685
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Foreshadowing and Building Revelations

Their vastly unique applications of this literary device create heightened feelings of suspense, yet at the same time make the revelations predictable. ... Such effective uses of this literary device are likely one of the many reasons both these short stories maintain their place in the canon of English literature....

  • Word Count: 598
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Chaucer and the English language

Though it is a bit presumptuous to say that Chaucer created the English language, there is no doubt that he did shape, create and modify Middle English, making his influence on the English language a great one. ... Therefore, what will be discussed in this paper are the major contributions Chaucer added to the English language in regards to the style he wrote in, dialect, pronunciation, spelling and grammar, borrowing of romance words, his influence as an English poet, and revolutionizing literary genres that not only depicted who Chaucer was and what he did for English in his time, but al...

  • Word Count: 5443
  • Approx Pages: 22
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Hamlet's Inner Conflict

They detail instructions to the English King to kill Hamlet. Hamlet changes these notes to ask the English King to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. ... (P.1498-1499 text book) This means that that Freud uses Oedipus and Hamlet, both being tragedies, because it follows a distinct form of revealing the literary text. Bloom disagrees with Freud because he believes that "blanket statements" cannot be applied to literary characters. ... (P.373, The Western Canon - Freud: A Shakespearean Reading) A human psychological theory cannot be applied to literary characters because there is no systematic l...

  • Word Count: 1246
  • Approx Pages: 5

8. Sin Sui Far and historical relevance

Though Eaton herself was only one-half Chinese (and one-half English), she was devoted to her mother and to the cause of counteracting the hatred and prejudice against her mother's people that was so pervasive during her own formative years. ... Many authors and literary critics saw connections between literary content and social influence. ... The irony of Howells' standards is that despite this impulse toward national unification, his own tenets of American realism have for years served to exclude from the canon those writers who were greatly interested in creating "true" represent...

  • Word Count: 2633
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Henry IV

If "all the best critics" of more recent times have been somewhat less willing to grant 1 Henry IV absolute pre-eminence in the Shakespeare canon, they have generally shared this admiration. ... Part One, however, was almost immediately both a literary and theatrical triumph, as successful in the bookstalls of London as it was on the stage. ... There are more references to the fat knight through the end of the eighteenth century than to any other literary character, and, until the last half-century, discussions of Falstaff "the most substantial comic character that was ever invented", as Hazl...

  • Word Count: 1901
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question