Pleasure and Change The Aesthetics of Canon

by Kermode, Frank; Alter, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780195309355
• ISBN10: 0195309359
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The question of the canon has been the subject of debate in academic circles for over fifteen years. Pleasure and Change contains two lectures on this important subject by the distinguished literary critic Sir Frank Kermode. In essays that were originally delivered as Tanner Lectures at Berkeley in November of 2001, Kermode reinterprets the question of canon formation in light of two related and central notions: pleasure and change. He asks how aesthetic pleasure informs what we find valuable, and how this perception changes over time. Kermode also explores the role of chance, observing the connections between canon formation and unintentional and sometimes even random circumstance. Geoffrey Hartmann (Yale University), John Guillory (New York University), and Carey Perloff (director of the American Conservatory Theatre) offer incisive comments on these essays, to which Kermode responds in a lively rejoinder. The volume begins with a helpful introduction by Robert Alter. The result is a stimulating and accessible discussion of a highly significant cultural debate.

Author Biography

Sir Frank Kermode is Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	vii
Introduction	3	(12)
Robert Alter
Pleasure and Change
Frank Kermode
Pleasure	15	(17)
Change	32	(21)
Comments
The Passing of the Canon	53	(12)
Geoffrey Hartman
It Must Be Abstract	65	(11)
John Guillory
The Artist and the Canon	76	(9)
Carey Perloff
Reply to Commentators
Frank Kermode
On the Comments of the Discussants	85	(8)
Index	93