Reading Reflections and Notes on Personal Canon
After reading the assigned readings by Ashley Lauren Samsa and Megan Ward, I think they bring up a similar and very important fact that the older texts are still important to have as part of the canon, but also that new and diverse works should be included to expand students' horizons. I really like the idea that Ward brings up, where she says that the older works will help us understand works written later on, she gives the example of reading Greek mythology and understanding the many references brought up in literature today. In high school, I feel like I got a good mix of canonical works and other works outside of this list. We were required to read at least one work of Shakespeare each year and we read works like The Great Gatsby and Things Fall Apart, but we also included works such as The House of the Spirits. I think this novel breaks the typical canon stereotype because it was written by Isabel Allende, a Chilean writer with her work published in the 1980's, she is not only a female writer from South America, but her book is also relatively current compared to many works in the Western Canon. As I mentioned before, I think some of the works are key to the canon and even understanding later works. In addition to some of these key works, I think that some more recent and diverse authors and their creations should be included in the canon to give new perspectives and present different ideas than what can be learned from works already found in the Western Canon.
Possible works for my personal canon:
1. The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
2. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Bible
4. Shakespeare
5. Silver Linings Playbook
6. The Sound of Music
7. 19 Minutes
8. A Tale of Two Cities
9. Kite Runner
10. 127 Hours
Possible works for my personal canon:
1. The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
2. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Bible
4. Shakespeare
5. Silver Linings Playbook
6. The Sound of Music
7. 19 Minutes
8. A Tale of Two Cities
9. Kite Runner
10. 127 Hours