Technically, for a novel to be accepted into the canon, it must be over 100 years old. This means that the novel has outlived its generation and context and is still as relevant and meaningful as it was when it was first published. The novels in the canon are so much more than just a good story. They have deeper layers which say something about human nature and there are different ways they can be interpreted. Most of the novels in the canon are representations of their context. They can be seen as a part of history and become important to our culture as they reflect the changes in our society. For a novel to be deemed to have literary value it must be unique and different. It must be challenging and make you think about it. Today any novel that wins an award or is short listed for an award is deemed to have literary value.
Jane Austen, Watercolour and pencil portrait by he...
English: Back View of Jane Austen, Watercolor
The Catcher in the RyeThe literary value of novels in the canon can be seen in the text "Emma" by Jane Austen. This novel was written in 1815 so it is nearly 200 years old and it is still very popular today. Emma has been adapted and appropriated into several films over the years so it is obvious that the appeal of the heroine is so great that each generation wants to recreate the novel in their context.
Emma is not a traditional woman in her context. She is more intelligent, beautiful and more of a free thinker than other women that appear in the novel. As Emma tells Harriet, "I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry". She is the mistress of her father's household and she has had no adversity in life. This has resulted in some minor flaws in her...
The misfiring canon
Who decides whether a given novel is in or out of the "canon"? Who sets the "canon"? What novels are currently in the "canon"? Have any been found so wanting in calibre that they have been removed from the "canon"?
One of the more significant consequences of a novel winning serious recognition is that it tends to get the novel placed on the reading list of high-school and college literature courses. Do most professors refuse to assign books that are not at least 100 years old? Hardly. Indeed, I would suggest that most of the novels that were assigned in my college literature classes were un-canonical. "Passage to India," "The Rainbow," "Sound and the Fury," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Old Man and the Sea," "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "Naked and the Dead," "Absalom, Absalom," "Guard of Honor," "Franny & Zooey," "Beetle Leg," "Cannibal," "Play It as It Lays," "Quiet Flows the Don," "One Day in the Life of Ivan Dennisovitch," -- all of these, and many, many more that I could name, are outside this author's "canon." Does that mean that any of these books is not worth reading?
0 out of 0 people found this comment useful.