ΕΓΛ613: Literature within and outside the Canon

The aim of the Module is to explore the concept of literary canon and the mechanisms through which it is formed and to discuss the concepts of extracanonicity / countercanonicity, i.e. the assignment of literary works to the fringes or outside of the canon or even the subverting of the canon. These concepts are historicised in the context of modernism and postmodernism. Major examples of literary canons, such as the national and the school one as, well as their vehicles of expression (e.g., histories of literature, anthologies and school coursebooks) are examined. The political and social conditions affecting the formation of the Greek literary canon in particular periods are discussed, as well as the role of critics and criticism in its formation. Moreover, the Module focuses on the concept of major and minor author and the criteria underlying them. Finally, the discussion turns to the concept of extracanonicity extracanonicity / countercanonicity: What position do literary texts outside the canon occupy in reader perceptions and expectations? How are they theorised? How are they promoted in the literary market?

We will focus on the following groups of examples covering different theoretical areas of extracanonicity / countercanonicity:

• Paraliterature (with emphasis on detective fiction, romance and bandit literature)
• Cypriot literature and its place in the canon of Greek-speaking literature. In this context, the concept of postcolonial and cryptocolonial literature will be discussed, following Michael Herzfeld’s well-known term
• Women's literature in the context of feminist literary theory
• Queer poets from the perspective of gender/sexuality studies
• Literature and image (adaptations of literary texts in comics, as well as literary texts with photographs). Examples of this category will be examined in the context of literature visualization theories, multimodalities and the relation between modernism and visual culture
• Literature on social media