Consens şi valoare (sau despre paradoxurile ideii de canon).

The paper tries to raise some issues of a philosophical nature, pertaining to the idea of literary canon. The history of the canon is usually presented in one of two ways: either the canon is depicted as the result of social negotiation (the consensual explanation), or as the true reflection of a stable history of the permanent values of a culture (otherwise known as the best that has been thought and said"). I argue that there are problems with each and that none is entirely true by itself alone, concluding that the consensual explanation is probably a more useful way of looking at cultural history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]