All right, so...I'm not sure if this is the best metaphor in the world, but I'm going to share it any way.
Abby's comment about the flying saucer and how canonical literature seems to permeate out from a local area to a wider and wider audience, until it becomes meaningful to an audience that stretches across various races, cultures, countries, both genders, etc. The image that I would like to relate to the canon is that of a hand full of individuals standing on the shore of a huge lake throwing pebbles into the water. The ripples that these pebble-throwers create represent the layers that exist in terms of audiences. However, the ripples created from the pebble-throwers overlap from time to time, effecting the same audiences and groups of individuals. Oh, and these pebble-throwers are eternal beings (well, some are). These pebble-throwers are at work until a piece of literature is removed from the canon. Then, that pebble-thrower begins to evaporate into thin air until he/she is completely gone and the text has been virtually forgotten.
Yup. That is not a very great representation haha. Just goes to show that the canon is an abstract beast that is really difficult to nail down. I'm going to try and explain this better tomorrow in class. :)
-Megan R.
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Megan,
ReplyDeleteI love this! I think the overlapping of rings of ripples is really actually a great way to represent the way different groups experience the same books... better than the "flying saucer" concept, I think. I'm trying to find a name for mine other than that, but so far no luck. Anyway, I completely get what you're saying about the canon here, and I agree.
Abby
...very clever....indeed. aps
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