Debating the Canon: A Reader from Addison to Nafisi - Softcover

Morrissey, L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1403968209 ISBN 13: 9781403968203

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005

Synopsis

Debating the Canon is a one-stop collection of the most important conversations regarding the development and future of the literary canon, with essays by T.S. Eliot, David Hume, Samuel Johnson, Leo Strauss, Elaine Showalter, Harold Bloom, Elizabeth Meese, and Henry Louis Gates to name but a few. Over the past two decades, the debate over the Great Books has been the central public controversy concerning the cultural content of higher education. Debating the Canon provides the first primary-source overview of these ongoing arguments. Many of these contributions to this debate have achieved "canonical" status themselves. Through their focus on the canon, the full spectrum of approaches to literary studies is represnted here. This collection places the recent debate within a larger context of literary criticism's development of a canon, going back to the eighteenth century. Morrissey's introductions provide context for the conversations, and together comprise a history of the debate over the Great Books.

About this title

Review:

"It would be hard for me to overestimate my enthusiasm for the extremely timely and useful book that Morrissey has put together...He has picked the best of the best-known contributions, and also strayed someway afield to bring in pieces that will enrich debate...I honestly can't think of one important piece in the canon debates that belongs in Morrissey's table of contents that he hasn't already though of." - Kevin J. H. Dettmar, Past-President, Modernist Studies Association

Synopsis:

Over the past two decades, the debate over the 'Great Books' has been one of the key public controversies concerning the cultural content of higher education. Debating the Canon provides a primary-source overview of these ongoing arguments. Many of these contributions to this debate have achieved 'canonical' status themselves; through the focus on the canon, the full spectrum of approaches to literary studies can be seen in the essays. Therefore, this collection places the recent debate within a larger context of literary criticism's development of a canon, going back to the eighteenth century.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1403968209
• ISBN 13: 9781403968203
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 319