Longue Duree

There is a dominant tendency in historical, literary and theatre research to focus on ‘highlights’, be it ‘important’ events, writers, actors, plays or theatre patrons. History in ten chapters (or 10 ½ as Julian Barnes did), the fifty most important plays, or the traditionally selective literary canon of a few hundred texts, are just a few examples. The current trend of making a canon on every possible topic is just one expression of this more general infectious. After the beta and gamma canon, the canon of journalism has already seen the daylight, and we must seriously consider the possibility of someone pencilling down a canon of crossmedia, oh horror....

Tagged with: braudel, patterns, theatre,