Course Description
The social, cultural, and economic influences on canon formation and on canon reformation in various cultures. The valences of canon in such environments and its impact on society.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
To submit a paper, roughly the equivalent of a thesis chapter,
although not necessarily to be incorporated into the thesis, to
a professional journal (the submission will of course result in
feedback); to find, on their own, a canon or canons, in any
culture, including scientific, and present it for discussion of
its characteristics, based on their own bibliographic work, in
class.
Athena Title
CANON
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1) to understand the function and status of canon elites (attorneys secular and sacred) in various societies, including at least the Bible and its derivative interpreters, Mesopotamian and Greek literary transmission, and modern literary critics. 2) to understand under what circumstances canons form. 3) to understand, particularly, under what circumstances Reformations occur.
Topical Outline
1. Mesopotamian canons' history 2. The Hebrew Bible's transmutation into canon, when and why 3. Greek canonization 4. Other canons (Chinese, Hindu, comparative) 5. Literary canons in recent decades 6. The ideation of reformation
Syllabus