Over the past two weeks I have learnt that new criticism comes in a diversity of forms, the ones I have looked at being, feminist, post colonial, structural and post structural criticism - each varying highly in what they express towards canonical literature.

Beginning with feminist criticism, I ascertained that there are very few female authors within the literary canon. This however was not too surprising, because in those days women had much fewer possibilities in the literary field, they `simply did not have the opportunity to produce canonical texts.' Having said this, I learnt that some prestigious female authors used to print their books under a false name, a man's name, in order to get their books published, such as Charlotte Brontë assuming the name of Currer Bell. With regards to the present day, Pam Morris argued that `men continue to dominate the institutions of literary...