As Baubeta tells us,Īnthologies are valuable elements for a history of literature, functioning simultaneously as the building blocks and as the key to understanding the nature and structure of the edifice» (Baubeta 13). It is nevertheless revealing that the anthology also plays an important role. However, when cleverly set up, the anthology can be used as a tool to engage new marketplaces and join separate readerships, especially when it is presented as a sample of new things to discover (“there’s something for every taste”). In my other role as an author and anthology editor, I frequently have to deal with some resistance from publishers because books that contain short stories apparently do not sell easily. It’s precisely the enforcing of criteria that creates an illusion of boundaries. The concentration camp par excelence, and a great mechanism of canonical hygiene. Besides, wider scopes and tighter selections result in lesser representations: the same 20 th century anthology will exclude more writers than perhaps will an anthology of English stories taking place in Manchester on the summer of 1990. An anthology of British writers from the 20 th century might not contain the most important texts of those authors but it can become a sample, presumably representative, that can be used as an hors-d’ouevre to the literary main course.
0 kommentar(er)
