‘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.

The canon is often debated in relation to the biblical canon. For the purposes of this essay it is not strictly relevant to dwell on this comparison. However, the definitions of the two are intertwined historically because the literary canon has taken on a similar nature to the biblical canon. The word originates from ‘kanon’ a Greek word meaning instrument of measure and has developed to connote a list of important authors and their works, concerned with sorting the “orthodox from the heretical” . 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. The problem seems to be a common one where assessing values in history are concerned, in What is History? Carr asserts t

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