The ethical imperative to shift toward a more equitable literary education

Choices governing canon formation have material, emotional, and intellectual consequences. Within canon formation, authors of different social identities, consistent with macrosocial power differentials, are unequally valued and shape cultural consciousness about which texts are aesthetically and intellectually valuable. It’s important to recognize canon formation as a process of unequally distributing cultural capital and knowledge production. The strategies and imperatives outlined here are basic first steps toward utilizing the classroom as a site to counter misogyny, racism, classism, colonialism, and homophobia. This project aims not only to deepen understanding of the sociological conditions of canon formation but also to impose an ethical imperative to confront it in the classroom through pedagogical methodology and an expanded syllabus that widens the curriculum to include the works and contributions of artists and scholars outside majority identities. It also seeks to center the student experience and to work against forms of epistemic injustice that occur when a traditional canon is the only access for students.