THE NEW CANON RULES

-defined by Charles Jencks

-11 "canonic rules" expressing the contrast with the older notion of classical r
ules
1. A HYBRID, DISSONANT BEAUTY AND DISHARMONIOUS HARMONY
-"fragmented unity" instead of "finished totality where no part can be added or
subtracted except for the worse"
-a pluralist society where a new sensibility is formed which finds oversimple "h
armony" false and unchallenging
THE NEW SENSIBILITY
-challenged by the juxtaposition of tastes and worldviews by the collision alter
nating with its effect (the consequence = "disharmonius harmony")
-effects: 1, 5, 6, 7
-the universe is dynamic and evolving (opposed to "the cosmic harmony" of the pa
st, to Renaissance with its perfect human body, celestial order)
2. CULTURAL AND POLITICAL PLURALISM
-if several possible readings are presented simultaneously it is left to the rea
der to supply a unifying text
3. URBAN CONTEXTUALISM
-"proper balance: between the essential elements
4. THE PRESENCE OF THE POSTMODERN ANTHROPOMORPHISM
5. HISTORICAL CONTINUUM AND THE RELATION BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
-outbreak of parody, nostalgia and pastiche (resulting in anamnesis)
-narrative without a plot (anamnesis is one of the oldest rhetorical tropes and
today has become a goal in itself)
6. A RETURN TO CONTENT
-the subject matter is extended from autobiography to high and popular culture,
from painting of nature to portrayals of psychological nature
- intertextuality: strategy and contained reality
7. DOUBLE-CODING
-use of irony, ambiguity, contradiciton (double-meaning)
-the form of "double-coding" allows us to read the present in the past as musch
as the past in the present as is history proceeded by gradual evolution of perma
nent focus
8. MULTIVALENCE
-many different associations and many adjascent references (themes, narratives)
-the continual discovery of new meaning in works that are rich in internal and e
xternal association (unlimited semiosis)
9. A COMPLEX RELATION TO THE PAST
-without "memories" and "associations" a novel is diminished of meaning

-emphasis on anamnesis ("historical continuum")

-dispacement of conventions, re0interpretation of traditions
10. ELABORATING NEW RHETORICAL FIGURES
-postm is defined by stylistic formulae which they invent or adopt: fashion and
function play a role in establishing the "new figures" (paradox, oxymoron, ambig
uity, double-coding, contradiction, irony, disharmonious harmony)
-erosion related to the feeling of loss, "the presence of an absence"
11. THE RETURN OF THE "ABSENT CENTRE"
-"an ambivalence that reflects the double-state of transition where activity mov
es away form a well-known point, acknowledges the move and yet keeps a view, a t
race of that past location"