What is a literary canon?

In literature, the canon is the collection of works considered representative of a period or genre. The writings of famous writers such as William Shakespeare or Chaucer are, for instance, a part of the Western canon, and classical Indian writers such as Kalidasa and Surdas are a constituent of the Indian canon as their writing and style has impacted the writings of many in all genres. A literary canon stands the test of time. The writers and their writings have universal appeal, having a universality of theme and enter a certain hall of fame. In Indian literature, Sanskrit texts were often and always part of its literary canon. The katha and the folk traditions were for a very long time never a part of the canon. Recently, there has been a rethinking and several texts have shifted and moved. The entire idea of a fixed literary canon has been questioned. Shakespeare has been adapted to films by writers and filmmakers of many countries. In India, Vishal Bharadwaj has adapted Shakespeare’s canonical plays, Othello, Hamlet and Macbeth, into films such as “Omkara”, “Haider” and “Maqbool”. This is just an example to demonstrate that cinema and media has also played an important role in the new idea of the literary canon. But we shall be reading more about this in Block 4 where we look at Vishal Bhardwaj’s The Blue Umbrella a cinematic adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s novella of the same name.

 

As stated earlier, the accepted body of work that comprises the canon of Western literature has evolved and changed over the years. For centuries, it was populated primarily by white men and was not representative of Western culture as a whole. Over time, some works became less pertinent in the canon and were replaced by more modern counterparts. For instance, the works of Shakespeare and Chaucer are still considered significant. But today People of color have become more prominent parts of the canon as a past emphasis on Eurocentrism has waned and several modern black writers such as Langston Hughes (1902 – 67) of the “Harlem” renaissance fame, Toni Morrison author of “Beloved” (1931 – 2019), and Alice Walker (1944) author of The Color Purple, and are a vital part of the modern canon. For example, contemporary writers such as Rabindranath Tagore (1861 –1941) of the Gitanjali fame, Pablo Neruda (1904 – 73), Raja Rao (1908 – 2006) the author of Kanthapura, Patrick White (1912 - 90), James Baldwin (1924 – 87), The Native Son Edward Braithwate (1930- 2020), Chinua Achebe (1930 – 2013), most well known for Things Fall Apart, Scott Mommaday (1934), Amy Tan (1952), and Sherman Alexie (1966), are all representatives of the entire subgenres of Native American, Asian-American, Australian, Caribbean, African, Indian and African-American styles of writing. Some writers and artists’ work are not as well appreciated in their time, but their writing becomes part of the canon many years after their death. This is especially true of female writers such as Jane Austen (1775 – 1817), who wrote “Pride and Prejudice”; Charlotte Bronte (1816 - 55), who wrote “Jane Eyre”, and Emily Dickinson (1830 – 86) who is well known for her poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. Literary prizes such as the Nobel, Pulitzer and Booker Prizes have played a significant role in the making of the contemporary canon. Additionally, it has also expanded the definition of the canon, turned it elastic and blurred the distinctions between classic and popular. Some of the contemporary writers of fame and popular appeal who have found considerable space in academic discussions are Marquez (1927 – 2014), Bapsi Sidhwa (1936), Salman Rushdie (1947), Orhan Pamuk (1952), Amitava Ghosh (1956), Jhumpa Lahiri (1967), Aravind Adiga (1974), and many more. It is often believed that the ‘contemporary’ takes time to enter the canon and become ‘canonical’ as it has to stand the test of time over decades if not centuries.

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