ABSTRACT
The “Canon”: that superego of literary culture, that bedraggled, resilient sign. Like others, I have believed that the bore of canons has been dangerously narrow. Like others, I have proposed that societies first construct a canon and then their canon instructs them. Like others, I have encouraged the “disestablishment of consensus.” 1 Such arguments throw cold water on the yawny dream of an immutable curriculum that reflects human universals. 2
