Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation

Guillory, Professor John

ISBN 10: 0226310442 / ISBN 13: 9780226310442

Published by University of Chicago Press, 1995

About this Item

Seller Inventory # WFBV.0226310442.G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226310442
• ISBN 13: 9780226310442
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: good

About this title

Synopsis

John Guillory challenges the most fundamental premises of the canon debate by resituating the problem of canon formation in an entirely new theoretical framework. The result is a book that promises to recast not only the debate about the literary curriculum but also the controversy over "multiculturalism" and the current "crisis of the humanities." Employing concepts drawn from Pierre Bourdieu's sociology, Guillory argues that canon formation must be understood less as a question of the representation of social groups than as a question of the distribution of "cultural capital" in the schools, which regulate access to literacy, to the practices of reading and writing.

About the Author

John Guillory is the Julius Silver Professor of English at New York University. He is the author of Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation and Professing Criticism: Essays on the Organization of Literary Study, both published by the University of Chicago Press.