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Chapter 3
WORLDS COLLIDE: CULTURAL CAPITAL AND TRANSGRESSION IN MATTHEW
LEWIS’ THE MONK
91
An Author, whether good or bad, or between
both, is an Animal whom every body is
privileged to attack; For though All are not
able to write books, all conceive themselves
able to judge them.
Matthew Lewis, The Monk
A literary work is not an object that stands by
itself and that offers the same view to each
reader in each period. It is not a monument
that monologically reveals its timeless
essence.
Hans Robert Jauss, Literary History as a
Challenge to Literary Theory
Matthew Lewis’ The Monk seems particularly well-suited to illustrate the various
intersections between transgression and canon-formation. The date of its publication
coincides with a particularly sensitive period in history when major paradigm shifts were
taking place at the social, cultural, economic, and political levels throughout Europe. As
mentioned in Chapter One, the advances in publishing technologies contributed to the
spread of literacy and promoted the expansion of a wide literary market, making books
accessible to segments of society whose contact with written texts had previously been
scarce and creating a considerable impact on cultural economies. Concurrently, the
middle class was growing at a remarkable rate and rapidly asserted itself as a powerful
force at all levels of discursive practices, greatly influencing previously established
hierarchies and high/low polarities. And finally, the French Revolution of 1789 spread a