| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 120.1 | | OOTOOL::CHELSEA | Mostly harmless. | Wed Nov 30 1994 12:37 | 2 |
| There is no list. It's all in people's heads, and everyone has their
own ideas.
|
| 120.3 | | SX4GTO::OLSON | Doug Olson, SDSC West, Palo Alto | Wed Nov 30 1994 12:39 | 12 |
| >but first, does anyone know where such a list can be found?
The guy who did the big book on 'cultural literacy', Bloom, has another
book out - and it supposedly has an appendix with just such a list.
His opinions of the canonical works, of course, but its a starting
point. That's probably the one you saw reviewed.
There's a College which offers basically a four year great books
program (Tomas Aquinas? not sure). You could maybe send for their
curriculum list.
DougO
|
| 120.4 | a little respect for some dead white males | WECARE::GRIFFIN | John Griffin ZKO1-3/B31 381-1159 | Wed Nov 30 1994 13:39 | 4 |
| Harold Bloom is the professor (at Yale, I believe) who's got a book out
now defending what is called the "canon" -- of which I do not think
there is a firm list. Bloom's book offers one rendition of the canon
-- other people have their versions.
|
| 120.5 | | POLAR::RICHARDSON | The Quintessential Gruntling | Wed Nov 30 1994 13:43 | 1 |
| I'll wait for the movie.
|
| 120.6 | | NOTIME::SACKS | Gerald Sacks ZKO2-3/N30 DTN:381-2085 | Wed Nov 30 1994 13:44 | 1 |
| I get a bang out of the Western literary canon.
|
| 120.7 | | WECARE::GRIFFIN | John Griffin ZKO1-3/B31 381-1159 | Wed Nov 30 1994 13:46 | 9 |
|
As for the canon itself, I'd say skip Dickens and Melville.
The Iliad repays study (the world before monotheism), and various
books of the Old Testament, Plato, Augustine, and lots of other good
things.
The dispute about Western literature has a lot to do with
multiculturalistic impulses anmd leftist agendas in schools.
|
| 120.8 | | USAT05::BENSON | | Wed Nov 30 1994 13:55 | 8 |
|
skip a tale_of_two_cities and moby_dick?!!! you've got to be kidding!
i enjoyed them both immensely.
i am now reading city_of_god (Augustine). will discuss it when i
finish.
jeff
|
| 120.9 | There is no such thing as *a* canon.... | PERFOM::LICEA_KANE | when it's comin' from the left | Wed Nov 30 1994 14:01 | 4 |
|
When did Bloom leave Cornell?
-mr. bill
|
| 120.10 | | DTRACY::CHELSEA | Mostly harmless. | Wed Nov 30 1994 14:06 | 9 |
| I like Dickens, although some might find him the literary equivalent of
the mini-series. (His novels were usually published in serial form,
which might have something to do with it....) Melville has some good
stuff, but he pads it with chapters of digressions. "Billy Budd"
spends a chapter on Captain somebody-or-other, who never appears in the
plot. _Moby Dick_ has all those discourses on whales.
Augustine is a fairly standard inclusion. Not a lot of big authors in
that era to choose from....
|
| 120.11 | | ODIXIE::CIAROCHI | One Less Dog | Wed Nov 30 1994 14:16 | 1 |
| How does a Dickens compare to a Howitzer?
|
| 120.12 | | COVERT::COVERT | John R. Covert | Thu Dec 01 1994 00:42 | 13 |
|
The tradition of the West is embodied in the Great Conversation
that began in the dawn of history and continues to the present
day. Whatever the merits of other civilizations in other respects,
no civilization is like that of the West in this respect. No
other civilization can claim that its defining characteristic
is a dialogue of this sort. No dialogue in any other civilization
can compare with that of the West in the number of great works of
the mind that have contributed to this dialogue. The goal toward
which Western society moves is the Civilization of the Dialogue.
"The Great Conversation" in the "Great Books of the Western World"
|
| 120.13 | | CLUSTA::BINNS | | Fri Dec 02 1994 10:05 | 8 |
|
> As for the canon itself, I'd say skip Dickens and Melville.
Evidence that the canon is neither fully definable at any time, or
unchanging over time.
Kit
|
| 120.15 | | RICKS::TOOHEY | | Fri Dec 02 1994 18:47 | 6 |
|
Alder, in his book 'How To Read A Book', lists his version of the
canon.
Paul
|
| 120.16 | | WHOS01::BOWERS | Dave Bowers @WHO | Tue Dec 06 1994 12:26 | 4 |
| If memory serves, University College at the University of Chicage
(Bloom's locus) bases its curriculum on a list of "Great Books".
\dave
|
| 120.17 | | USAT05::BENSON | | Tue Dec 06 1994 13:20 | 6 |
|
did check and it is Harold Bloom I was referring to. I'm on the
waiting list at the library to get his book. If the list is not
humongous, i'll enter it...eventually.
jeff
|
| 120.19 | oh my! | USAT05::BENSON | | Tue Dec 06 1994 13:36 | 1 |
|
|
| 120.20 | Blooms | CTHU26::S_BURRIDGE | | Tue Dec 06 1994 13:46 | 5 |
| The late Allan Bloom, author of "The Closing of the American Mind",
taught at Toronto and Chicago and I belive Cornell. Harold Bloom is
at Yale.
-Stephen
|