Abstract

What is a classic ? To this day, no consensus exists on the definition of the literary classic , or on the definition of canon. It is an open debate, to which this master thesis participates. For many centuries, classics were selected for various aesthetic criteria that seemed to go 'without saying', and that scholars did not feel the need to justify. During the second half of the twentieth century however, views on the concept began to change. Debates emerged on the universality of its definition, and the idea that subjectivity might govern its selection process started to be examined. The literary Institution, as presented by Jacques Dubois, became for most critics the main agent of canonization, and aesthetic was demoted to a factor amongst others. Still, whether we are discussing canonic genre or ideology, we are forced to admit that the Institution does not discriminate its classics the same way everywhere. Of all those elements of subjectivity now taken into consideration in the field of canonical studies, it is the cultural aspect of the process that interests us here, and more precisely its manifestation in French and English Canada. By examining the critical reception of six Canadian classics published in the 1950's, we hope to find how those novels gained their recognition, and therefore shed some light on the Canadian way of envisioning the literary canon.