defining literature

• includes all written/printed works that are put in the right context (eg. ready-made art pieces)

• descriptive approach

• only “high culture” works are literature

• prescriptive approach

• fiction

• non-pragmatic discourse

• foregrounding of language

• aesthetic object

• multiply interpretable meaning

• intertextual and selfreflective construct

• mimetic concept

• pragmatic concept

• expressive concept

• objective concept

• focus on the relationship between text and context

• literature should aim at imitating reality as well as possible (Aristotle)

• literary realism: george eliot, …

• focus on the relationship between text and audience

• Horace: function of literature is to teach and delight the reader

• literature can have a didactic purpose

• example authors: Charles Dickens, George Orwell

• focus on the relationship between text and author

• literature as the subjective and original expression of the authors personality and imagination

• roots in the romantic period

• example authors: James Joyce

• focus on the text itself as a purely aesthetic object with no connection to reality

• text-intrinsic approach, rejecting all mimetic and moral functions of literature

• example oscar wilde

a “definitive” list of books that everyone should read

not naturally created, it is influenced by the dominant group

Nünning: the canon are texts that are considered artistically superior

traditionalists: in favour of centering the curriculum on classic works of literature

culturalists: want to “open up” the canon to fix the issues of representation that run deep

1. keep it

2. abolish it

3. change it

• necessary tool for literary discussions

• pragmatic use (time)

• books are recognized for their aesthetic merit and seemingly equal

• essentialist view on literature

• assumtion that quality is objective

• political context entirely disregarded

• extremely privileged postiton (tailored to represent the ruling group)

pro: no endless discussions anymore

cons: no common ground for discussions

not practicable

• possibility to add items that were previously disregarded

• encourages literary invention

• ensures representation

• difficult, laborous process

• doesn’t address the fact that some groups were banned from writing historically and CAN’T be represented

• natural, innate distinction between “good” and “bad” literature

• some might never get it

• critics fail to grasp true qualities of literature

• retroactively introducing works doesn’t mean good literary analysis

• project to redress and redo the canon

• done by introducing innovative literature to the canon

• innovation historically done by those in power

• project gives power back to those who were disadvantaged

1. context-based

2. text-oriented

3. reader-oriented

4. author-oriented

5. other texts as context

6. other: postcolonial/gender studies, empirical literary theory

see cross graphic!