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Professors’ list of Great Books

 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading Post Reply
40 messages over 5 pages: 13 4 5  Next >>
YnEoS
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United States
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 Message 9 of 40
09 March 2014 at 3:32pm | IP Logged 
druckfehler wrote:

Compiling a definite literary canon of "more worthy" literature is fraught with many dangers... Personally, I don't believe it should be attempted.


I don't think I agree with this. Though my opinion is likely shaded by being more familiar with film canons, where the canon was made within the past ~100 years and hasn't completely settled yet.

But in general I tend to think of canons as being shifting things with fuzzy edges. I think it's healthy to have an evolving canon that reflects the critical climate of the time, and then gradually you see which works consistently make these lists of greats and which were introduced and then later dropped because they were fashionable with whatever critical theories were popular at the time.

Edited by YnEoS on 09 March 2014 at 3:35pm

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luke
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 Message 10 of 40
09 March 2014 at 6:38pm | IP Logged 
Luso wrote:
3. That being said, I find these lists useful: when comparing lists (why should I believe in the criteria of a single author?), there are certain books that come up often; for instance, when I see The Great Gatsby in every list, my guess is that it must be a well-written book. ;)


It's true that many books show up on various lists and that too tends me give them more weight. Some lists do focus more on a particular literary tradition. For example, the Harvard Classics confesses that it draws more from American and English authors for a variety of reasons, partly cultural, partly practical (no translation necessary), and partly because of the expected audience.

Edited by luke on 09 March 2014 at 7:37pm

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sipes23
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 Message 11 of 40
13 March 2014 at 3:58pm | IP Logged 
luke wrote:
beano wrote:
Why are they all so old? Can a book not be "great" if it was written after 1870?


He has a 20th Century Waiting List. Tbe idea there is that historically it has taken some time (100 years) for
a book to have stood the test of time before classified as "Great".


And I don't think he's just wanted the book to have been published for 100 years. I think the authors themselves
have to be dead 100 years.
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AlexTG
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 Message 12 of 40
14 March 2014 at 12:30pm | IP Logged 
English does generally have a reputation as the strongest literary language of Europe. Historically the only
real contenders were Italian and French, the other strong Languages like Russian and German were late
comers. English got a major boost over Italian and French thanks to Protestant support for vernacular
language and widespread literacy.

I think canons are great. It's impssible to read every book. I want to maximize the odds that the ones I do
read give me lots of pleasure. So I look at what other people have loved.

Edited by AlexTG on 14 March 2014 at 12:31pm

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Lykeio
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United Kingdom
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 Message 13 of 40
14 March 2014 at 1:37pm | IP Logged 
There is something oddly literary about the British Isles in that sense. It's far from
my area of study but yeah I see what you mean. Some of the first vernacular literatures
to develop in Europe were in Ireland and England with Wales not close behind and it's
like they've never shut up. I'm constantly surprised at how great a range of literature
English has and if someone had made me aware of the early Saxon poetry, Medieval
Miracle plays, philosophical treatises etc alongside the more canonical stuff (Milton,
Spenser, Blake etc) when I was younger I'd be much better off for it. Ah well.

It's funny because the literature tends to be snobbed by those people who in turn seem
to be near illiterate.

I had no idea German and Russian could be considered late comers, interesting. I think
with Italian though you have to admit until recently it was the language of the novel,
Eco, Calvino and a host of others...parfait. French too has a grand, wealthy, tradition
especially if you like essays. Meh, pretty much most languages have great traditions
I'm just glad to have a chance to discuss the concept. I mean one never sees Spanish
beyond Quixote but things like Tyrant Lo Blanch are bloody excellent.

As for the professor's list...well...if you're after lists go find experts in those
literary canons and see what they've put out rather than cleaving to a single list
which was made for whatever purpose. Also be advised that canons are highly malleable
and the difference between emic and etic (internal and external re: a culture) can
often be huge. If we were to compile a list of the "most important" (grah!) Ancient
Greek works to read based on common consensus it would look QUITE different from a
contextually created list of what the Greeks themselves though. This was one of the
tasks we were set as first year under-grads actually...we took the popular list of like
100 classical works all "must read" and then we went through what the ancients
themselves rated and...it was so different. Yet either list would suit. Your own
personal list would be even better.
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luke
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 Message 14 of 40
14 March 2014 at 3:22pm | IP Logged 
sipes23 wrote:
luke wrote:
beano wrote:
Why are they all so old? Can a book not be "great" if it was written after 1870?


He has a 20th Century Waiting List. Tbe idea there is that historically it has taken some time (100 years) for a book to have stood the test of time before classified as "Great".


And I don't think he's just wanted the book to have been published for 100 years. I think the authors themselves have to be dead 100 years.


I think he waits until the author has been dead for 100 years because of the forum's rules on copyright.
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Luso
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 Message 15 of 40
14 March 2014 at 4:22pm | IP Logged 
AlexTG wrote:
 English does generally have a reputation as the strongest literary language of Europe.

Interesting. I've lived all my life with the notion that it would be French.

In this thread (so far) 11 persons have contributed (if I counted correctly):
- 7 list English as native language (none for French);
- only 3 persons claim to be fluent in French (all 11 for English).

I could do the same exercise for German, Italian, Spanish or whatever, and it would be the same. Globally speaking, this is a language learning forum for people that already speak English. Maybe there are exceptions, but that's more or less true.

Disclaimer: the idea behind this post is just to point out that many times we don't get access to unbiased information. Maybe English has the strongest literary tradition in Europe. I don't know. But this is probably not the best place to find out, since most people will fight for their "lady". And here the odds are not good.

As they say in your language: it's not a fair fight.

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Elanguest
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Malta
elanguest.com
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 Message 16 of 40
12 May 2014 at 10:26am | IP Logged 
I recently read a short bio of Rafael Sabatini and found it very interesting that, as a polyglot (fluent in 6 languages),
he read a lot of Europe's great literature as a child, and when he began writing novels himself, he chose to write in
English because apparently he felt that the best stories were written in English.

Just wanted to comment on what you said about Don Quijote, Lykeio: there's a lot of really great Spanish-language
books from the Western Hemisphere: Jorge Luis Borges, Bioy Casares, Julio Cortázar, Juan Rulfo, etc. Also don't
forget Miguel de Unamuno from Spain. :)


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