Untitled - Sexey's School Moodle

that remain canonical throughout the ages are invariable to sudden shifts or trends. On
one hand, within the paradigm of historical, moral, and aesthetical values, challengers
have always accused theory of reflecting the ideologies of the dominant social classes
and contributing to the marginalization of literature by women and minorities according
to Lauter (141). On the other, as Lillian S. Robinson aptly points out, without the advent
of Marxist and Feminist criticism, many of today’s women and minority authors would
have probably never been included in the canon and forever remained marginalized and
ghetto-ized (157).
Recognizing that literary criticism is a primary influence in the processes
involved in canon-formation signifies various things. First, it further emphasizes the
school as the exclusive setting for canonical readership and dissemination because the
school is exclusively the domain of literary theory. Second, a work that is discussed in
the university classroom, anthologized, cited or recited—whether directly or indirectly, as
an influence or as mere subject—is constantly “relived” and is thus given the opportunity
to be read by a wider audience, which increases its chances of being canonized, observes
Smith (148-9). Finally, a text that can endure a wide array of critical approaches and
withstand the test of time is deemed to be indisputably multilayered, and thus, it contains
an intrinsic property to all great works of literature; as Jane Thompkins points out, “the
hallmark of the classic work is precisely that it rewards the scrutiny of successive
generation of readers, speaking with equal power to people of various persuasions (144)”
by successfully passing what Harold Bloom would call “the pragmatic test for the
canonical” (226).
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