Definition of "intrinsic" within this quote about the literary canon?

User192499

Because frankly, I can't write an essay on a quote I don't even understand the meaning of. I just can't understand the meaning of the word "intrinsic" in this context, and dictionary.com hasn't helped. And, shock horror, I don't have a dictionary in my room (FOR SHAAAAAAAME!)

“The contemporary view of the canon as a reflection of ‘an ideological struggle than a natural aesthetic order’ subverts the notion that texts attain high cultural status only by virtue of their intrinsic merit.”

Thanks,

Brogan

Reply 1

Sanyore

14

well, it seems like the standard definition of "intrinsic" applies. If I understand correctly, the quote is saying that the idea that the literary canon is motivated by ideology consequently asserts that certain literature isn't in the canon because of its own literary characteristics (intrinsic worth) but for its value to some powerful/influential class of society (extrinsic worth).

sorry if I've completely missed the point of what you were trying to ask. in fact I think I have. but the point is, um yeah, the definition of intrinsic seems like the standard one, and in this case refers to the characteristics a piece of literature has in and of itself.

Reply 2

User192499

OP

15

No, thanks for that. I'm quite hopeless vocabulary-wise. :smile:

Reply 3

MeAndBubbles

12

I think it's like when the labour government values music, not for its intrisic goodness, but because, for example, it gets people socializing more or is good an earning foreign currency by exports. It doesn't care about music intrincally.

Reply 4

MSB

17

I recognise this. I've done that essay; it was awful.

Reply 5

User192499

OP

15

MSB

I recognise this. I've done that essay; it was awful.

Ours is for tomorrow. We haven't even had our "embeddedness" ones back yet, so essentially this is my second essay ever, and I don't even know whether my first one was sensible theory or incoherent gibberish.

How deep would the snow have to be for the class to be cancelled? *gets praying*

Reply 6

MSB

17

EducatingBrogan

Ours is for tomorrow. We haven't even had our "embeddedness" ones back yet, so essentially this is my second essay ever, and I don't even know whether my first one was sensible theory or incoherent gibberish.

How deep would the snow have to be for the class to be cancelled? *gets praying*

You can basically attribute each of the parts of the title/quote to various critical 'opinions', rather than understanding them specifically (since, after all, theory uses whatever the hell words it wants to mean whatever the hell it wants them to mean).

Definition of "intrinsic" within this quote about the literary canon?

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