The Comparison About Literature Canon Between Harold Bloom And The School Of Cultural Studies

Since 1980 s,the debate about western canon has never stopped.Representatives of both sides are Harold Bloom and the school of Cultural Studies. Bloom stands on the position of traditional aesthetic,maintaining the stuts of traditional canons.And the school of Cultural Studies stands on the position of pluralism tolerance, advocating opening canons. There are great differences between them.This article is divided into four chapters.The first chapter introducts cultural context.Through the analysis of the thought of American society after the second world war,exploring the historical origin of the literary canon debate,and introducing the canon debate between Bloom and the school of Cultural Studies. The second chapter is the theoretical source of both sides. Both positions have profound theoretical basis,and therefore,they have certain rationality. The third chapter is the differences between Bloom and the school of Cultural Studies. Respectively from the standard of canon, the attitude towards canon,and the project of canon reconstruct, to compare the differences between each other. The fourth chapter combines both their thoughts. Although the "aesthetic" and "culture" are two opposite positions, in the aspect of promoting the popularity of canon has risen to a common effect.They expound theory from internal and external side of literature, make literature canon to get more attention again from the public.Finally, in the conclusion part,the article summarizes the historical law of literature development: New theories are emerging constantly,they will not replace each other,the relationship between them is coexistence.So we don’t have to worry about the critical of Cultural Studies would make the canon decline. Insteadly,such arguments will make canon to get more attention again to some extent. And on the other side,it proves the importance of literature canon. In addition,in the context of today’s literature,literary canon is facing an open text system in the world, so the communication between different culture is still necessary.