A Model for the Canonization of European Cultural Saints
Keywords:
European literature, national literatures, canonisation, literary canon, cultural memory, »cultural saints«, national identity, national poetsAbstract
This article presents a new framework for studying the canonization of “cultural saints”. The framework is devised as a tool for systematically dealing with various cases of canonized artists, but fits especially well with the “national poets” and other writers celebrated and canonized in Europe during the (long) nineteenth century. It is derived from the distinction among the a) canonical “potentials” inherent in the candidate’s biography and works (vitae), canonization in the narrow sense, which mostly relates to the posthumous “afterlife”—distinguishing between b) the more static inventio and c) the dynamic-perpetual cultus—and d) the implications (or consequences) of the entire process for broader society (virtutes). After initial remarks regarding the proposed concepts of cultural saints and canonization, key elements of the framework are discussed in the central part of the paper. The conclusion outlines opportunities for future research.References
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