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Creating a syllabus for American Literature

fication of the "American experience" is no less subjective than an evaluation of merit.

Despite the fact that the philosophy behind the construction of the American canon was quite different from that behind the building of the English canon, the modern American canon, like Johnson's, is overwhelmingly dominated by men. In fact, as late as 1977, no women novelists were represented in the canon (Baym 64), even though women writers have been publishing since Colonial times. Baym asserts that since the middle of the nineteenth century, women writers have outnumbered and outpublished their male counterparts (64). The lack of female representation in the canon, therefore, seems to be more than a casual or accidental oversight.

But the question still remains--given that the canon should be amended to reflect the contribution of women writers to American literature as a whole, who should decide what authors and works are to be included, and how should those decisions be made? Should women authors be included based on the same criteria used for including male authors, or should women be evaluated on the relevance of their work to women's studies in particular? Should the canon represent works which are obscure but critically acclaimed, or should it, like Johnson's original canon, include works which have not necessarily been well received by scholars but have nonetheless stood the test of time and enjoyed popularity, such as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women? Some agreement on these issues is necessary if a revised Feminist canon is to be taken seriously.

One of the problems confronting those who support the idea of constructing a revised American canon is that there has been no coherent codification of "Feminist literary theory." For the most part, Feminist theory uses the same essential foundation used by traditional, male-centered literary theory, and so it is normally perceived as simply an appendix to or deviation fro...

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Creating a syllabus for American Literature. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 16:21, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1708156.html