The writers of the literary canon have a bad reputation in today's literary circles. I understand—they are predominantly dead white men. What could they know about this modern age? They didn't deal with feminism, environmental problems, or racism.
There's a reason though that English majors study them. At UCF, all tracks are required to take literature courses. The point of the courses is to provide the English major a foundation for discovery. I wouldn't have known that Shakespeare or the speeches of Queen Elizabeth could be read as feministif I was a Spanish major (which I was considering). Because I was learning about the canon in a new light, I fell in love with it all over again.
I fell in love with the literary canon when I was high school, to the point that I was the class nerd in the subject. In fact, after reading "Wuthering Heights"in my senior year, I declared itas my favorite book. My English teachers encouraged me to read and write because they saw I had a passion for understanding culture.
I'm not saying that you need to love the literary canon like I do. In fact, it would be nearly impossible unless you have the same appreciation for historical and modern culture as I do.Rather, you should respect it. Everything needs a foundation to shape the path to progress.
Problems with the literary canon should not disavow readers from never reading it; what are we if we don’t have great dramas or stories to learn from? Because wewould be foolish to believe that learning comes from a vacuum of thought. Everything comes from a starting point after all so that we can revisit it and make it better for our futures. Sure, the literary canon is misogynist and racist—but that doesn’t discredit it for the language and imagery it invoked for its period. Itdoesn't mean it's great for reasons we don't know. We do know if we had effective teachers who taught us the importance of culture and acceptance.
While the literary canon has flaws like everything else in life, itshould not be an impetus for resistance and revolt. From resistance comes a disregard for our history. If we rebel against our history and seek to replace it, we are eliminating an integral part of our cultural identity. I understand that creating a norm of acceptance is the latest social movement but shucking the culture we come from is just another way of saying that we don't accept the past for what it has offered us—a reason to write.
The literary canon has helped me see the history of the world in a new perspective. It allows me to find my own voice in this world full of writers advocating change. I'm not afraid to love the literary canon because change isn't just about making a new path for the future. It's also about rewriting history.