Canons do not exist until they are fabricated
Evidence
It is in the metropolitan country, in any case, that a literary text is first designated a Third World text, levelled into an archive of other such texts, and then globally redistributed with that aura attached to it. It is useful, therefore, to demystify the category of ‘Third World Literature’ which is emerging in the metropolitan university now as something of a counter-canon and which – like any canon, dominant or emergent – does not really exist before its fabrication. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 75
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the counter-canon as itself a fabrication, not an authentic archive.
- XREF: connects to: Canon formation works by excluding certain questions from being asked
Related
- Canon formation works by excluding certain questions from being asked (similarity 0.84)
- A counter-canon arises only from an ideological cement, not aggregation (similarity 0.84)
- An aggregation of texts requires binding ideology to become a counter-canon. (similarity 0.82)
- Even counter-canons assert dominance and define their own selections as the essential (similarity 0.81)
- Canonization works by foreclosing certain kinds of questions (similarity 0.81)
- Canon formation selects and dominates by excluding texts that genuinely belong to a period (similarity 0.80)
- ‘Third World Literature’ functions as a counter-canon that limits admissible questions. (similarity 0.79)
- Third World Literature is a metropolitan fabrication, not a pre-existing category (similarity 0.78)
- Canon formation operates through selective admission, not outright exclusion (similarity 0.78)
- Canon formation works by foreclosing certain questions while foregrounding others. (similarity 0.78)