ABSTRACT
A literary canon is a body of texts taken to be the best a culture has to offer; it is composed of works that have stood the test of time and enjoy general acclaim among readers, critics and academics alike. Importantly, a canon is shared by a group; canon formation is a collective cultural process of value conferral upon works of literature. The canon of western literature and by extension that of world literature makes constant use of translations albeit often surreptitiously. The relation between translation, canon and gender is also largely an uncharted territory. Translation studies itself is subject to processes of canonization, helped along by anthologies and readers. Certain translation studies texts have attained canonical status; examples include Holmes’s ‘The Name and Nature of Translation Studies’ and Even-Zohar’s ‘The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem’.
