ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the cultural criticism against a particular historical reading of the contemporary crisis in the humanities. It examines deeply ambiguous intellectual sentiments regarding the process of canon formation now afoot in African American literary criticism. The chapter describes the appropriate role and function of oppositional cultural critics in regard to prevailing forms of canon formation in the time. Attempts to justify and legitimate canon formation in African American literary criticism are made in the name of pluralism. Canon formations that invoke the sole criterion of form—be it of the elitist or populist variety—are suspect. Cultural critics should promote types of canon formation that serve as strategic weapons in the contemporary battle over how best to respond to the current crisis in one’s society and culture. As canon formation proceeds among African American cultural critics and others one can try to avoid as much as possible the pitfalls that are described.
