Western Canon - Examples

Examples

Examples of shorter canonical lists of most important works include the following:

• Bibliothèque de la Pléiade
• Directed Studies at Yale University curriculum
• Great Books
• Great Books of the Western World
• The Harvard Classics
• Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century – books of the 20th century
• Modern Library 100 Best Novels – English-language novels of the 20th century
• ZEIT-Bibliothek der 100 Bücher German Die Zeit list of 100 books
• Library of America

University reading lists reflect the Western canon:

• Brigham Young University's Honors Program's Great Works List
• Colgate University's required Western Traditions class
• University of Chicago Core Curriculum
• Columbia College Core Curriculum
• Dartmouth College's Dialogues With the Classics program
• New York University's mandatory Conversations of the West course
• Princeton University's Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture
• St. John's College Great Books reading list (established by Scott Buchanan and Stringfellow Barr)
• Saint Mary's College of California Collegiate Seminar
• Stanford University's Program in Structured Liberal Education curriculum
• University of Notre Dame's Program of Liberal Studies curriculum
• Boston College's Perspectives Program

Longer, more comprehensive, lists include the following:

• Everyman's Library (Modern works)
• The Modern Library
• Penguin Classics

Chronological brackets

• Philosopher John Searle suggests that the Western canon can be roughly defined as "a certain Western intellectual tradition that goes from, say, Socrates to Wittgenstein in philosophy, and from Homer to James Joyce in literature..."