UC Merced

Canon is a construct that has been under scrutiny since the 1960s. And while the general consensus is that canon must be more inclusive and open up, a plausible solution to this dilemma has not been suggested yet. This dissertation proposes to do away with the metaphor of canon as a way of measuring literature’s merits, and replace it with another metaphor. For the sake of this study, the metaphor of conversation is a proposed metaphor. By looking at how canonical structure has impacted certain writers, this study looks at the way in which “conversation” can open up the study of literature and how it may democratize that same study.