The Literary Canon In American Literature

The literary canon is a list of books chosen by scholars that displays the books that have been influential to western culture. The books chosen have been placed under this list because they contain important information that has impacted America. The controversial part of these “canonized” books is that they have been selected by “important” scholars. The system of canonizing a book lacks the diversity that the western hemisphere has, therefore, not all the western cultures are being represented. Representation is key to accuracy within history, in order to capture the essential history of the American literature. One cannot simply withdraw the different cultures, the exclusion of many cultures and groups of individuals makes the literary …show more content…
For years women have been viewed as the lowest, in literature, it is no different, women authors are not being included in the list. The minority groups are being forgotten because society views them as unintelligent. Not only are they viewed as unintelligent, they are viewed as lazy and incompetent. Why does society view people of color less than people of fair skin? People of color are viewed as less due to the stereotypical work they do. Immigrants,women and people of color are stereotypically uneducated. For centuries people of color were assigned to do slave work. African Americans lived in slavery for decades. This relates to the works in the literary canon because society has grown accustomed to view colored people as uneducated, therefore it can be assumed that due to the fact that they have this thought of colored people inculcated in their mind, they do not notice the discrimination that they are spreading. Basically, they see their actions as nondiscriminatory and factual. Which is untrue, for centuries hate crimes have been recorded, and prejudice and racism roam the United States. Due to the views of the dominant culture, minority groups are often perceived as less "literary" than their white …show more content…
The ideals that are revealed through literature have impacted society in many ways, authors are able to express their ideas through their works.The literary canons exclusion of diversity has made the public view the canon as an unrealistic approach to Northern American history. Many works by women, gays, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and non-Europeans had made their way into college literature courses, however those novels have not made it on the literary canon. These works have not been a constant in college literature courses but have made their way up there. Therefore the works done by this amount of diverse people of different ethnic backgrounds should not be excluded from the literary canon. What makes these authors so important is that they have a different point of view and sense of writing in comparison to writers already in the canon. These new authors are more pertinent to today 's students of English than is the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Scholars constantly debate on whether the books included in the literary canon are relevant to english students across the nation. The classics reflect the era of the time from which they were written but are considered classics because they are timeless and relatable even centuries after. New issues are being faced in the twenty-first century that could not have possibly been addressed by the classics. This new