Literary Canon

OBJECTIVES
- To give students an overview of the complex development of the theoretical concept of the literary canon over more than two thousand years and to distinguish it from related phenomena and concepts (classics, world literature);
- To give an overview of the most important theoretical authors who have contributed to the modern concept of the canon, but also of those who have criticized the concept;
- Using the example of the canonization of the Slovenian national poet France Prešeren, explain the most important mechanisms of canonization ("cultus") and its broader social impact ("effectus").

COMPETENCIES:
- Students will be able to explain the historical development of the concept of canon and related phenomena and justify the differences between its use in different contexts (culture, art, religion);
- Students will strengthen their ability to reflect on and critically evaluate literary texts and other artistic products in different historical contexts (from antiquity through the Middle Ages and modern times, the emergence of national literatures and cultures to the contemporary canon in a consumer society);
- Students will be equipped with the conceptual tools to interpret and reflect on individual cases of canonization.

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course Literary Canon.

The course examines the concept of the literary canon, tracing its historical development and the multiple theoretical implications that have accompanied more than two millennia of its complex history on the European and later global stage. Finally, an analysis of a key example of canonization in Slovenian literature (Prešeren) follows.

The introductory section discusses the emergence of the concept in Hebrew and especially Greek culture, where the idea of the canon is established as an (ideal) yardstick against which other cultural achievements are measured and also evaluated. The development of the idea of the canon as a reference list in Hellenism and the Roman era is discussed, and in particular the changes that the concept of the canon undergoes in early Christianity when it first became a reference for defining the sacred texts (canonized vs. heretical texts) and later takes on other roles in Christianity (the “canon of the Mass”, “canon law”, the canonization of saints).

The central part of the (historical) treatment of the concept involves its gradual reestablishment in the secular sphere at the end of the 18th century and its expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries, which runs parallel to the expansion of vernacular canons and the discussions on the emergence of the "Weltiliteratur" and the problem of “literary classics" (Sainte-Beuve, T. S. Eliot, Kermode). More recent conceptions of the literary canon (Altieri, J. and A. Assmann, Bloom), their critiques (Bourdieu, Stevenson, Guillory, van Rees) and additions from the perspective of contemporary comparatism dealing with the problem of world literature (Even Zohar, Juvan, Moretti, Casanova, Damrosch) are critically discussed.

Finally, a newer methodology for the study of canonization is presented, which is adapted to the study of individual cases (Dović and Helgason). The paradigmatic process of canonization of the poet France Prešeren, Slovenia's "national poet" and "cultural saint", is examined as a typical Slovenian case.

A student
- learns and understands the basic theoretical concepts related to the (literary) canon;
- learns and understands the complex historical development of the concept both as a term and as an idea;
- acquires a basic historical orientation to the prevailing canonization practices in different eras;
- familiarizes himself with the major authors (and critics) that are important for contemporary theoretical reflection on the concept (Altieri, J. and A. Assmann, Bloom, Bourdieu, Guillory, Moretti, Casanova, Damrosch);
- develops the ability to independently examine and critically comment on individual examples of canonization;
- develops the ability to argue and apply knowledge to new situations;
- develops the ability to apply the acquired concepts to the analysis of different historical and especially contemporary situations.

• Altieri, Charles: An idea and ideal of literary canon. Critical Inquiry 10/1, 1983: 37–61. E-version
• Bloom, Harold: The Western Canon. The Books and School of the Ages. New York, San Diego, London: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994. E-version
• Bourdieu, Pierre: The field of cultural production, or: the economic world reversed. (Prev. iz francoščine Richard Nice). Poetics 12/4–5, 1983: 311–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(83)90012-8
• Dović, Marijan, Jon Karl Helgason: National Poets, Cultural Saints: Canonization and Commemorative Cults of Writers in Europe. Leiden: Brill, 2017. Catalogue
• Dović, Marijan: Prešeren po Prešernu: kanonizacija nacionalnega pesnika in kulturnega svetnika [Prešeren after Prešeren: The Canonization of the National Poet and Cultural Saint]. Ljubljana: LUD Literatura, 2017. Catalogue
• Gorak, Jan: The making of the modern canon. Genesis and crisis of a literary idea. London, Atlantic Highlands: The Athlone Press Ltd, 1991.
• Guillory, John: Cultural capital. The Problem of Literary Canon Formation. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 1993.
• Juvan, Marko: »Literarni kanon«. Literatura 13, 1995: 116–135. E-version

Essay 100 %

Marijan Dović is Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the ZRC SAZU Institute of the Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies (Ljubljana). He also lectures at the Faculty of Arts (University of Ljubljana) and School of Humanities (University of Nova Gorica). He published Slovenian books on systemic and empirical approaches to literature (Sistemske in empirične obravnave literature, 2004), the development of the role of the literary producer (Slovenski pisatelj, 2007), the interwar avant-garde (Mož z bombami, 2009), and the canonization of the Slovenian national poet (Prešeren po Prešernu, 2017). With J. K. Helgason, he wrote National Poets, Cultural Saints: Canonization and Commemorative Cults of Writers in Europe (Brill, 2017). He co-edited thematic volumes on literature and censorship, publishing, book history, spatial turn in literary studies, and literature and music. His major publications in English address Romanticism, European cultural nationalism, national poets and “cultural saints”, the literary canon, systems theory, the interwar avant-garde in the Balkans, and the theory of authorship. He is the editor-in-chief of the comparative literature journal Primerjalna književnost (2016–) and a co-editor of the book series Studia litteraria (2018–). He was awarded the 2021 ESCL Excellence Award for Collaborative Research for the book Great Immortality: Studies on European Cultural Sainthood (co-edited with J. K. Helgason, 2019).

Selected bibliography:

• Slovenski literati in cesarska cenzura v dolgem 19. stoletju. [Slovenian Writers and Imperial Censorship in the Long Nineteenth Century]. Ur. / ed. Marijan Dović. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2023.
  Great Immortality: Studies on European Cultural Sainthood (co-edited with J. K. Helgason). Leiden: Brill, 2019.
• National Poets, Cultural Saints: Canonization and Commemorative Cults of Writers in Europe (with J. K. Helgason). Leiden: Brill, 2017.
• Prešeren po Prešernu: kanonizacija nacionalnega pesnika in kulturnega svetnika [Prešeren after Prešeren: The Canonization of the National Poet and Cultural Saint]. Ljubljana: LUD Literatura, 2017.
• Mož z bombami: Anton Podbevšek in slovenska zgodovinska avantgarda [The Man with the Bombs: Anton Podbevšek and the Slovenian Historical Avant-Garde]. Novo mesto: Goga, 2009.
• Slovenski pisatelj: razvoj vloge literarnega proizvajalca v slovenskem literarnem sistemu [The Slovenian Writer: The Development of the Role of the Literary Producer in the Slovenian Literary System]. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2007.
• Sistemske in empirične obravnave literature [Systemic and Empirical Approaches to Literature]. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2004.
• “National Poets and Romantic (Be)Longing: An Introduction.” Arcadia: Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft 52.1 (2017), 1–9.
• “From Autarky to ‘Barbarian’ Cosmopolitanism: The Early Avant-Garde Movements in Slovenia and Croatia.” In: Goldwyn, Adam J. (ed.), Silverman, Renée M. (ed.). Mediterranean Modernism: - Intercultural Exchange and Aesthetic Development. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 233–250.
• “France Prešeren: A Conquest of the Slovene Parnassus.” In: Cornis-Pope, Marcel (ed.), Neubauer, John (ed.). History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 2010, vol. IV. 97–109.
• “The Slovenian Interwar Literary Avant-Garde and Its Canonization.” In: Bru, Sascha (ed.). Europa! Europa?: The Avant-Garde, Modernism, and the Fate of a Continent. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. 36–48.