The Complete English Literature Reading List

Reconstructing the Canon

Harvard Course Catalog 1969-1970 As companion to my video-essay, the following list is a canon of literature representative of what was most commonly taught by English departments during the height of the English major (1960-1980). If you read my previous essay about the changes in literature departments, you know that many English departments in the U.S. no longer have a comprehensive canon of great literature. So I’ve gone back to the archives to reconstruct a list of the works that were most taught during the “golden age” of English literature (1960-1980). I’ve dug through mid-century…

saved by

• Bryant W

related reading

• Syllabi | Great English Literaturesyllabi.directory
• Best Essays of All Time – Ranked | Make Lists, Not Warbeckchris.com
• The Age of the Essaypaulgraham.com
• Literary Theory for Beginnersemilyannebooks.substack.com
• 150 Great Articles & Essays: interesting articles to read onlinetetw.org
• A Non-Western Canon: What Would a List of Humanity’s 100 Greatest Writers Look Like? – The Scholar's Stagescholars-stage.org
• Books I've been readingdanwang.co
• The Age of the Essaypaulgraham.com
• The Books You Faked Reading in High Schoolstevenjreese.substack.com
• A list of books and essays that I lovehenrikkarlsson.xyz
• List of English-language books considered the besten.wikipedia.org
• What Did We Learn From Lex Fridman's Book List?regressstudies.substack.com