OED Q: "canon" as "accepted body of works"?

[Baker, John]

        The OED definition does not, however, reflect the more recent definition of "canon" as the written or other fictional works that are considered to constitute the entirety of the authoritative works concerning a fictional character or set in a fictional universe.  For example, there are many stories concerning Sherlock Holmes, but only those written by A. Conan Doyle are considered to be the canon.  DC used to have a practice of printing "imaginary stories" (as if, in context, there were any other kind) featuring Superman; even though they are comic book stories published by DC and from the usual Superman creative team, they depart from the usual character continuity and are considered noncanonical.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Garson O'Toole
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 4:37 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: OED Q: "canon" as "accepted body of works"?

This instance in 1920 of "canon" in the phrase "canon of literature"
might fit under the OED definition.

Cite: 1920 January, Normal Instructor and Primary Plans, Volume 29,
Number 3, A Plan for the Study of "Snow Bound" by Velva Bradbury,
Start Page 26, Quote Page 26, Dansville, New York. (Google Books full
view)
http://books.google.com/books?id=L1wwAQAAMAAJ&q=%22canon+of%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
The time to teach this poem is after a snowstorm. The first one
hundred-seventy-five lines are the finest in the poem. These at least
should be included in the canon of literature for our rural schools.
Incidentally, few pupils can read Whittier without absorbing the idea
of a man of great conscience and high spiritual insight.
[End excerpt]


On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: �  �  �  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: �  �  �  "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: �  �  � Re: OED Q: "canon" as "accepted body of works"?
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> Joel,
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> Yes, you missed it. � See below.
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> Fred
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> � a.Literary Criticism. A body of literary works traditionally regarded as the most important, significant, and worthy of study; those works of esp. Western literature considered to be established as being of the highest quality and most enduring value; the classics (now freq. in the canon). Also (usu. with qualifying word): such a body of literature in a particular language, or from a particular culture, period, genre, etc.
>
> 1929 �  Amer. Lit. 1 95 �  Those who read bits of Mather with pleasure will continue to feel that those bits cannot be excluded from the canon of literature until much excellent English ‘utilitarian’ prose is similarly excluded.
> 1953 �  W. R. Trask tr. E. R. Curtius European Lit. & Lat. Middle Ages xiv. 264 �  Of the modern literatures, the Italian was the first to develop a canon.
> 1989 �  Times Lit. Suppl. 7 July 739 �  My Secret History‥alludes to half the modernist canon, from Eliot to Hemingway to Henry Miller.
> 1999 �  N.Y. Rev. Bks. 4 Nov. 29/2 �  The canon was under attack from feminists and social historians who saw it as the preserve of male and bourgeois dominance.
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> � b. In extended use (esp. with reference to art or music): a body of works, etc., considered to be established as the most important or significant in a particular field. Freq. with qualifying word.
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> 1977 �  R. Macksey in Compar. Lit. 92 1188 �  The author concentrates on six major works in the operatic canon, masterpieces by two towering figures in the history of Western music.
> 1985 �  Washington Post 5 July x12/1 �  What looks like spaghetti Bolognese and keeps fresh on the shelf for 50 years? Japanese plastic food, the real-as-life models that restaurants in Japan use for the prosaic business of window display, and that visitors have gleefully added to the canon of pop art.
> 1995 �  Independent (Nexis) 10 Dec. 2 �  Mick taught himself to play the guitar and spent ‘a great deal of time’ studying songwriting; not just the soul and R'n'B legends‥but the whole rock canon—the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and the Velvet Underground, but especially The Beatles.
> 1998 �  Herald (Glasgow) 3 Sept. 22 �  The concept has settled comfortably into the canon of accepted biological theory.
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> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
> Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 2:26 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: OED Q: "canon" as "accepted body of works"?
>
> Is this sense not in the OED? � I must have missed it.
>
> Joel

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