Questions about the collection or selection of genuine or important works of literature. This includes questions about accepted religious works (for example, the Biblical canon), the genuine works of an author (for example, the Shakespeare canon), important works in a culture (for example, the Western canon) and works agreed as portraying a fictional universe (for example, the Sherlock Holmes canon).
A canon is a collection or selection of works regarded as genuine or important in some way. There are several related uses of the term:
- A collection of works that are accepted by a religion as genuine and inspired, for example, the Biblical canon.
- A collection of works that are known or believed to be genuine works of an author, for example, the Shakespeare canon.
- A collection of works that are important within a culture and considered worthy of study, for example, the Western canon.
- A collection of works that are agreed as portraying a fictional universe, for example, the Sherlock Holmes canon.
Except in sense 3, non-canonical works are known as apocrypha (for example, Biblical apocrypha, Shakespeare apocrypha, and Sherlock Holmes apocrypha).
