Creating a Canon, Creating the ‘Classics’ in Twentieth‐Century British Ballet

Bibliographic Data

ID20458031
AuthorsBeth Genné (corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume18
Issue2
Pages132-162
Publication date2000-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDance Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0264-2875 • E-ISSN: 1750-0095
PublisherEdinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3366/1290849
OpenAlexW2009487267
LanguageEN
Citations received5

One of the major scholarly projects in the academic study of all areas of the ‘Western’ humanities in the last decade has been a radical re-examination of ‘canons’ – those bodies of works in art, literature and music that have come to be seen as the foundations of the field. These works are viewed by scholars and practitioners alike, as essential to the repertory of all who would practice or write about the art form. Students of literature must know Shakespeare and Chaucer, artists and art historians Praxitiles and Michel angelo, musicians and musicologists, Bach and Mozart. The works that make up the canon are commonly designated ‘classics’ and presented as ‘timeless’ – removed from the vagaries of fashion and universal in their appeal. The canon of classics forms the core of the teaching of humanities at most American and British universities. Questioned by feminist and ‘multiculturalist’ scholars who feel that other – equally worthy – works have been excluded because of patriarchal and colonialist attitudes, established canons have been defended by scholars and critics like Harold Bloom. Most fields have sizeable canons – with representative works from a range of historical periods. Western art history’s canon begins with ancient Greek art and architecture with landmark works in every era through Roman, Early Christian, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art. Literature and Philosophy, too, trace their ‘classics’ to the ancient Greeks and numerous works from this period to the present are recognised by their scholars. In Western music the time frame is shorter, beginning in the middle ages. In these fields, it is often difficult to pinpoint the precise historical moment when works were transformed in the public imagination from the fashionable to the ‘timeless’ and entered the canon as ‘classics’. However some historical moments can be pinpointed. One thinks, for example, of the revival of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion instigated by Mendelssohn

Art · Art history · Canon · Greeks · Literature · Musicology · Classics · Diversity and Impact of Dance · History · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Theater, Performance, and Music History

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