The Canon – Inquisitive and Adaptive: A Re-Definition From the Perspective of Consistent Skepticism

Abstract

The problem of the canon has been traditionally seen as alluding
to a form of explicit or implicit consistency. The traditional meaning of the canon
depends on a sense of cohesiveness of values and norms, being connected to a given
understanding of the architecture of the universe, in the manner in which per- and
earlyamodern political philosophy used the notion of „constitution” with respect
not to a textual corpus of principles and norms, but to the very structure of o
society that „naturally” embodies principles and norms. In modern times, with the
rise of the nation states, the canon is seen as a collection of remarkable, groundbreaking
intellectual and artistic achievements, that are supposed to convene
spontaneously on basic ethical orientations, or at least similar moral sentiments.
My paper argues that this modes of construing the canon could be
supplanted by a „negative” understanding of commonality and consistency. On
the one hand, I propose that the mind of a literary epoch might be forged rather by
the problems that the thinkers and artists resent as central (in a definition of
centrality that equates it with: the most disquieting). On the other hand, I argue
that the cohesiveness obtained through a literary canon is best understood as a
community of doubt, a manner of circumscribing shared uncertainties and felt
vulnerabilities, rather than a positive consensus.