A reflection on literary canon and translation: the case of Spain in the Late 1990s and early 2000s

Abstract

The term Literary Canon has always been a complex issue to describe. The debate that this fact origins affects either the editorial market and higher education. In this exploratory reflection, based on the literary market observation in the last ten years, a lot of parameters are questioned. I question from the personal criteria that lead somebody to gather an anthology to the relation between canon and power. Fowler, Evan-Zohar, Sullà and Reyes, among others, have presented different approaches to the possible structure of Literary Canon: Dynamic, hierarchic, primary, secondary, etc. Nonetheless, there are neither sources nor academics that openly claim if there is a known identity that establish the Canon under political, social, cultural or globalisation factors. Though, it is generally conveyed that the quality of a work is measured according to the number of languages to which it has been translated.