Canon formation works by foreclosing certain questions while foregrounding others.
Evidence
The hegemonic manoeuvre was evident, further, in the fact that any text which aspired to be included in the category of ‘what came after’ had (a) to have enough modernism within it and (b) also to diverge sufficiently in a new avantgardist way. In either case, processes of canon formation meant also that certain kinds of questions could not now be asked. One could not read a modernist or post modernist narrative from the standpoint of realism, for example, without being guilty of Derrida’s famous ‘metaphysic of presence’ The subordinating or even foreclo~ing of certain kinds of questions, the foregrounding of others, is the essential canonizing gesture. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 484
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the mechanism of canon formation: not inclusion alone but the managing of what questions may be asked.
- XREF: connects to: Canonization works by foreclosing certain kinds of questions — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 210; Canon formation selects and dominates by excluding texts that genuinely belong to a period — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 209; Canon formation operates through selective admission, not outright exclusion — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 189 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Canonization works by foreclosing certain kinds of questions
#expands(0.95) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 210 - Canon formation operates through selective admission, not outright exclusion
#contradicts(0.85) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 189 - Canon formation selects and dominates by excluding texts that genuinely belong to a period
#contradicts(0.80) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 209 - Canonization of a film can proceed directly from grassroots self-promotion
#complicates(0.80) — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 38 - Organizations can enforce complicity through deliberately suppressed curiosity
#exemplifies(0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2385