One can't help but feel that it's a qualitative, as well as temporal, description (even though I've directly opposed it to the 'modern' and thus suggested that the latter was my only consideration). I have, for reasons perhaps comprehensible only to me, decided to describe this category as encompassing everything 'Up to (and including) High Modernism'. It is, I appreciate, powerfully ironic (dangerously so, even) to use a literary movement named for its modernity to bracket the 'classic' forum, but that is exactly what I have done.
3 posters
The notion of 'classic' literature
perkunas- Posts : 49
Join date : 2012-04-21
I've always simply viewed the term "classics" to mean the mutually agreeable best of past literature. It's somewhat arbitrary I suppose but when expounded upon I don't find much confusion in its usage.
Character Corwin- Posts : 5
Join date : 2012-04-21
I've always taken the "classics" just to be a sign of popularity, basically an "essential lit list" of the West. And any modern book of today could be the classic of tomorrow. It's understandable why these sorts of labels exist and I think they are useful.
I think these kinds of notions only become harmful when people start basing their tastes totally on what is recognized as "canon", which closes off potentially good experiences. And from there it just devolves into "more intellectual than thou" nonsense.
I think these kinds of notions only become harmful when people start basing their tastes totally on what is recognized as "canon", which closes off potentially good experiences. And from there it just devolves into "more intellectual than thou" nonsense.
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