Reply to spin off- what would you consider the "canon' in lit these days?

Forum Index » The DCUM Book Club

Reply to "spin off- what would you consider the "canon' in lit these days?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]like the title says- which books/authors do you assume most people would have read by the time they are finished?

I think  a lot of people have the misfortune of not getting assigned any Austen -b/c the patriarchy- but also id find it easy to believe that most under 50s these days have read no dickens or twain at all.   kids nowadays read no Shakespeare at all as well.

I was surprised that so many people hadn't read Gatsby in the original since it was assigned to us as "The Great American Novel" but then I never got assigned any Hemingway!

I'd say that I think people should have a passing familiarity with shakepeares' work, Austen, Elliot, the Russians as group (maybe at least read some short stories) same with the Nigerian and Indian writers - should know the post colonial literature as a category and some names and themes like know who Jamaica Kincaid is at least. Yeats, Auden, Keats, ee Cummings , Salinger b/c I like his work and rich kids are people too. Dickens, twain .. if you don't know these you miss out on references in current literature .   I think the purpose of a literary 'canon" is it is  a body of work that we can use as a common reference point  and better inhabit the role of the "implied reader" [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics