With the canon debate, prominent in literary criticism since the early
1970s, as the sounding board, the study aims at investigating and
discussing in critical perspective the function of considerations to do
with canon for literary criticism at the formation stage. It focuses on
the interaction between a critic's canonical preferences ('versions of
the past') and his desire for improved cultural and/or aesthetic
conditions ('visions of the future') in the criticism of Eliot, Leavis,
Frye and Bloom.