The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms canon A body of writings recognized by authority.

Those books of holy scripture which religious leaders accept as genuine are canonical, as are those works of a literary author which scholars regard as authentic. The canon of a national literature is a body of writings especially approved by critics or anthologists and deemed suitable for academic study. Canonicity is the quality of being canonical. Verb : canonize . See also corpus, oeuvre . For a fuller account, consult Christopher Kuipers , The Canon ( 2007 ). How to cite this entry: "canon" The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Chris Baldick. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Fordham University. 7 August 2008 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html? subview=Main&entry=t56.e163> The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature canon, a body of approved works, comprising either (i) writings genuinely considered to be those of a given author; or (ii) writings considered to represent the best standards of a given literary tradition. How to cite this entry: "canon" The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble and Jenny Stringer. Oxford university Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Fordham University. 7 August 2008 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html? subview=Main&entry=t54.e1007> The Oxford Companion to English Literature canon, a body of approved works, comprising either (i) writings genuinely considered to be those of a given author; or (ii) writings considered to represent the best standards of a given literary tradition. How to cite this entry: "canon" The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Fordham University. 7 August 2008 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html? subview=Main&entry=t113.e1294> The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature canons, selective lists of Greek authors, dating from ancient times. By the mid-fourth century BC it was recognized at Athens that there were only three outstanding tragic

dramatists, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, who comprised the tragic canon, but the first authoritative lists, at least of the poets, seem to have been drawn up by the Hellenistic scholars, Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus, in the third and second centuries BC. These lists can only be reconstructed from later references and there is no unanimous agreement on their contents, but it seems clear that they named as the best iambographers Archilochus, Hipponax, and Semonides; as the best epic poets Homer and Hesiod; as the best writers of Old Comedy Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristophanes; and of lyric poetry Pindar, Bacchylides, Sappho, Anacreon, Stesichorus, Simonides, Ibycus, Alcman, and Alcaeus. Lists of orators, historians, and philosophers were subsequently compiled, although only that of the Attic orators rivalled in fame the lists of the poets. The ten best Attic orators were deemed to be Antiphon, Lysias, Andocides, Isocrates, Isaeus, Demosthenes, Aeschines, Lycurgus, Hypereides, and Deinarchus. The authors themselves were called in Greek, hoi enkrithentes, those selected, and in Latin, classici, i.e. of the first class (see also CLASSIC), but there was no term for selective list until the German-Dutch scholar David Ruhnken in 1768 originated the use of canon in the sense (Gk. kanonsoriginally rods, then carpenters' rules, hence metaphorically standards of excellence). How to cite this entry: "canons" The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Fordham University. 7 August 2008 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t9.e533>