Who's In, Who's Out - Jane Cooper and Charles Foster | Danube Culture

We all know what we mean by the Western Canon. Or do we? The Canon comes from nowhere and everywhere. A smelted down best-of-the best of the things our culture has truly loved. But at its borderlands, there are constant wars for what should be included. Culture always evolves. We see the same Roman poets quite differently to how the Victorians did. At its core, things like Shakespeare sit firmly within the redoubt. But is Henry James worthy? And is Trollope not? Magrite - yes; Koons no?  Dr Jonathan Price is a Visiting Fellow at the Danube Institute. In his new show for Danube Culture, he wants to explore the meaning of the Canon, by asking individual experts what they think it should contain. Each episode, we’ll have two guests. Each will argue to place one new artefact inside the Canon — and argue as to why one well-respected piece should be removed. You’ll hear passionate arguments about the meaning of art.  And hopefully, you’ll pick up some recommendations of great works to check out —  and those to swerve.  After all, the canon is made by those who actually engage with it.  This week: Jane Cooper, a Prize Fellow at All Souls College Oxford, and Charles Foster, Fellow at Exeter College Oxford (and author of Being a Beast, long-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize). Charles wants to put The Waste Land in the bin of cultural history, but thinks Zorba The Greek should be on the curriculum. Meanwhile, Jane wants Bob Dylan to be knocked from his cultural perch, while vouching for the exquisite Tudor poet Robert Southwell, who was hanged at Tyburn for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy to Queen Elizabeth.