The Anatomy of Literary Tradition

The term 'literary tradition' is ubiquitous in literary scholarship. It is also greatly under-theorized. While there have been many efforts to define and understand related terms like 'canon', 'influence', and 'literary history', similar treatments of'literary tradition' are comparatively rare. One reason for this gap in the theoretical literature is that there is no single understanding ofliterary tradition. Different scholars employ different understandings of the concept depending on context and critical aims.