The Question of a Canon
Alvin Burstein
Every society, every culture, assigns power and privilege differentially
to its members. If social upheaval is to be avoided, the cultural
assumptions that justify those inequalities must be widely shared and effectively
disseminated. Those assumptions will constitute the world view of that
culture or society. Fashion and esthetics are carriers of such assumptions
as is the designation of the cultural "worth" of literary and artistic
productions (the distinction between high and low culture). The icons
of a culture, its canon, thus serve a political purpose, that of rationalizing
the unequal distribution of power and privilege within that culture.
For example, the absence of women's voices in the "Great Conversation"
is related to and an expression of the political circumstance of seeing
masculinity as more valuable than femininity. Concretely, it is related
to the political and economic circumstance of women being seen as chattel
(given in marriage by their fathers) and of being unenfranchized politically
- having finally been given the vote, but not practically eligible to be
elected to the presidency. The absence of Black and Native American
voices should also be remarked. The Western Canon is a monument sanctifying
"dead white guys." Hence to the argument for supplementing the Western
Canon with alternative voices, or for calling into question the whole concept
of "greatness" in art, literature and philosophy.
ON THE OTHER HAND
No one can stand outside their society or be value free.
In addition, some values persist; freedom, choice, mercy, trustworthiness
and rationality are intrinsic to any definition of humaneness . The passage
of time is an effective filter. Those works of art and literature
that continue to speak to us over the centuries endure as a manifestation
of their worth and continued relevance. While the canon is an open one
in the sense that any new work of art is a candidate for inclusion and
absolute unanimity about which works are to be included does not exist,
a canon does exist; it includes those works that, over time, have
helped explore most deeply the implications of what it means to be
a human being. It would not be too much to say that to be civilized
is precisely to be engaged in that exploration.
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Last updated: Wed Jul 19 19:18:50 EDT 2000