Precursority: a proposal to think the literary canon

Abstract

Jorge Luis Borges mentioned that he always considered writing a study of Kafka and his precursors, what he did when he wrote an essay entitled “Kafka and his precursors” published in Selected non-fictions. In order to accomplish this the Argentinean writer referred that he had to spend a little time with Kafka and because of that he could recognize “his voice, or his habits, in the texts of various literatures and various ages.” Spending a little time with Borges made me consider writing an essay about the issues he argues there. I named these issues as “voices” once like Borges I could recognize some of them in his text. I understand that these issues trace the structure in which I want to address the discussion about some questions from the field of Literary Studies, more specifically from the area of Literary History such as the debate about canon. My essay aims to propose the idea of “precursor” as a concept to (re)think the notion of literary canon.