The Importance Of The Literary Canon

Literature; it has compelled us, entertained us, educated us, and drove us to madness. It has served as life instruction, by using the characters as the lesson plan. It is sometimes blunt, sometimes ugly, and in Truman Capote’s case, is so gruesome that we do not dare forget it.

“In Democracy in America, de Tocqueville observed that Americans esteemed the arts and sciences more for their practical applications than for their abstract value —hence the popularity of newspapers, religious treatises, and self-help books” (2-3). Since that is the case, the interpretation of a classic must evolve for it can relate to today’s society. Current society includes cultural diversity, therefore, literature that is taught must provide this diversity. Students should be reading literature that will give insight to others and contains a strong meaning; rather than providing literature that does nm for the student. reading a book just for a grade will not help the student in anyway.

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to

In this passage the author, Dana Gioia, establishes the negative affects of the declining participation in literature by young adults. The lack of the literary involvement by young adults is a huge issue today.

In the article, “Why Literature Matters”, the author, Dana Gioia, states how reading is taking a turn downhill as young adults are not reading literature. Gioia addresses that in order to fix the issue, politicians and business communities need to try and fix the problems. Dana Gioia uses a series of logical appeals to show how the decrease in literature is affecting the society.

Dana Gioia thinks that the decline of reading has a negative impact on today’s society. He gives evidence and facts to persuade the readers “why literature matters".

Some topics are more interesting to read than others. In an article called ‘Why Literature Matters’ written by Dana Gioia, this article can be viewed as highly persuasive because of the techniques he uses to get his points across to the audience .Gioia is able to build arguments though his use of evidence and different literary techniques.

In an age where the printed novel has been somewhat on the decline, and the necessity of readable fiction has almost faded into obscurity. I believe that literature still harbours a crucial part within our society; from the very foundations of most theatrical adaptations, to preserving the culture and encapsulating the feelings of generations past. In this case literature cements itself as one of the most decisive elements of our civilisation, and combining it with history makes it become a testament to who we are as people, as well as the conservation of both our progression and degradation. I have always enjoyed reading literature, from reading J.R.R Tolkien’s classic ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy within my childhood, to perhaps more sophisticated,

Though many people nowadays disregard the usefulness of literature in modern society I belong to the opposite sect of folk. Reading and literature is more than just words and writeing, its ways for the dead to speak and advise those to come through understanding of common feelings. Whether the author meant to mean something through metaphor or more literally is not important, what is important is that us as the readers are able to communicate and interpret needed information from the subject and author. Something that I sometimes think is lacking in todays society is not just this communictation but understanding. Furthermore reading it gives us a way to understand and invest in lives other than ourselves. Secondly reading and understanding what we read allows us to feel empathetic towards the subject thus allowing us to share our own story of feeling and ideas. This is

The readers are able to infer from the two pieces of evidence listed above that the serious problem with reading and interest in literature is not only aimed at young adults in America, but also full-grown workers all around the world. Gioia cleverly puts the two precise data together so that most readers can fully understand how significant this issue is and pay more attention on

Technical analysis of “Studying Literature in Grade 12” It is important for any society to protect and promote its own culture for people to have a sense of the history that shaped their surroundings and the identity of the community they live in. Mrs. Smith, in the essay “Studying Literature in Grade 12”, brings forth the detailing of why Ontario students, studying English, need not bother with reading other authors than modern Canadian writers. Unfortunately, the message already controversial and polarizing is riddled with mistakes. The essay suffers from failures in building structure, conveying ideas, citing sources and proofreading text. This work would greatly benefit from a rewrite so it can perform the job it was meant to do: persuade the reader.

“Why Literature Matters” by Dana Gioia is a brilliantly written essay highlighting the exact reason as to why literature really matters. The introduction to the essay is pulling and interesting, but has a stronger powerful feeling than actual facts. The second paragraph is, on the other hand, mainly factual. Gioia uses a survey to legitimize his claims, and describes the organization that distributes said survey. This provides the reader with a deeper sense of understanding, and builds a trust for the author.

The literary canon is a classification of literature that is used widely to refer to a group of literary works that are most important of specific time period or place. A literary canon can establish a collection of similar or related literary works. In order for literature work to enter the canon it has to be decided by influential literacy critics, scholars, teachers, and other opinions who are highly respected. There are no rigid qualifications for canonization, whether work will be canonized remains a subjective decision.

The contrary side may infer that all students of high school English must read particular texts, such as literary canon books because they are most genuine, preeminent and beneficial. This is quite erroneous, though. According to George P. Landow’s article, “The Literary Canon,” “To enter the canon, or more properly, to be entered into the canon is to gain certain obvious privileges” (Source A). Landow, in essence, states that to become part of a “canon,” a literary work must transcend certain criteria. For example, dramatic works, such as “To Kill Mockingbird” and “Romeo and Juliet,” have been inaugurated into a canon, known as the “literary canon,” due to their profound, cohesive and well-accepted form of writing. Consequently, the opposition desires for all students of

The literature field is full of works that are nothing short of great. Many popular writers, such as Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, have authored stunning classical plays and novels, which have been read around the word. This makes choosing one’s work over all the others’ even the more difficult when there comes to the time of literature evaluation and comparison. However, in the midst of all those great literature works, there are some great standing out articles due to their strong composition and meaningful life messages that the authors try to convey to the audiences. One of them is the short story “Sonny’s Blues”, written by James Baldwin in 1957. This story shows us the reality as well as the complexity of life matters, and an overall picture of all the subcategories also really shows us the reason why it should be remained as a part of the literary canon of the 21st Century.