Western canon

The Western canon is a body of works from Western traditions regarded as especially influential or culturally significant across literature, philosophy, music, and art.

Cultural canon: A body of works treated as especially authoritative or significant within a culture. The Western canon is one historically specific form of cultural canon.
Classical antiquity: The societies and cultural traditions of ancient Greece and Rome. Greek and Roman texts became central reference points for later Western literary and intellectual traditions.
Western literature: Literary works produced in the languages and traditions of Europe and societies shaped by them. Literature is the most familiar and institutionally prominent part of the Western canon.
Canon Wars: Late twentieth-century disputes over literary curricula, cultural representation, and the authority of traditional canons. These debates made the Western canon's membership and educational role public controversies.
The Iliad: An ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer, centered on the Trojan War and Achilles. It is a foundational classical text repeatedly used to define Western literary inheritance.
Canon formation: The processes through which works become recognized as enduringly significant. Institutions, critics, and teaching traditions continually shape which Western works endure.
Renaissance humanism: An intellectual movement that revived classical learning and emphasized the study of human letters. Its recovery and teaching of ancient texts helped establish lasting literary hierarchies.
Western philosophy: Philosophical traditions originating in ancient Greece and developed across Europe and its cultural successors. Its foundational texts are routinely grouped with canonical literature and art.
Decolonization: The dismantling of colonial rule and its continuing cultural and institutional effects. Decolonial criticism questions the canon's ties to empire and European cultural authority.
The Divine Comedy: Dante Alighieri's Italian epic poem depicting a journey through the afterlife. Its literary ambition and influence make it a central medieval canonical work.

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