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Precis: " Inventing the Classics" (1999) Introduction Chapter by Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki

In the introduction chapter of Shirane and Suzuki’s “Inventing the Classics” (1999), the major discussion revolved around defining what is literary canon, what makes it canon, and what is considered canon in the Japanese Literature. The literary canon has many considerations, depending on whose definition and precedence, just as the chapter mentioned. They also enumerated these considerations as genre and the competing canons; gender and canon formations; canon and nation building; elite and popular cultures; and the structure of the book, wherein they discussed each subtopic concisely on its significance in the creation of the literary canon. Though the structure of the book is very important in the creation of the canon, one must consider that unlike the western literary canons, Japanese Literature is different, in fact unique, in which it is also considered a means of establishing historical facts and legitimacy or even ideologies, and thus, the structure of the content vary in tone and purpose. Still, there were other written works that were canonised, not for nation building or establishing ideals, but for instruction of which the written and spoken language would find their basis upon. This chapter reads much like an overview and a succinctly introduction of what the book entails, wherein some of the mentioned topics would be given more discussion.

(October 18, 2015)

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