Literary Canon

The literary canon is the body of works that a given culture recognizes as exemplary, classic, worthy of study, preservation, and transmission to subsequent generations. The canon is formed through school curricula, anthologies, literary criticism, academic institutions, and literary histories. It is not immutable: the canon is constantly revised, expanded, and contested — a process called the 'canon wars.' Postcolonial, feminist, and cultural criticism expose the mechanisms of exclusion (of women's writing, 'minor' literatures, marginal voices) from the 'great' canon. Harold Bloom, in 'The Western Canon' (1994), defended the aesthetic autonomy of the canon. The problem of the Ukrainian canon is especially acute owing to the colonial past: its reconsideration (decolonization, the return of the 'Executed Renaissance' and forgotten names) is a key task of contemporary literary studies.