The Politics of Poetry Anthologies

Course Description

The first poetry anthology appeared over three thousand years ago, and according to Publisher’s Weekly, anthologies “remain a mainstay of poetry publishing,” usually selling better than individual volumes of a single author. A search today on amazon.com shows over 80,000 listings. Yet, poetry often gets a bad rap. At best, it’s a luxury. At worst, it’s boring, indecipherable, irrelevant, or obscene. But poets continue to defend it, magazines publish it, schools teach it, and publishers anthologize it. In fact, poetry anthologies highlight ways in which poetry is germane to our everyday lives, relevant to our sense of identity, and even powerful as a force in the world. Often, poetry gives expression to what needs to be named, “writing despite the facts/ to create new ones.” In this course, we first examine how thematic anthologies reflect defining issues of a given historical moment. Next, we turn to test cases for understanding the politics of canon formation. Who gets anthologized and what factors influence editors’ choices? The course culminates in a poetry anthology project where, in small groups, we design our own anthologies. Students decide on themes, determine the selection criteria, choose poems to be included, and write a full-length introduction. Note: this is not a creative writing class, and the poetry selected for the anthologies must be previously published. The course provides detailed training for understanding, appreciating, and analyzing poetry, so students interested in poetry but not writers themselves are invited to take this FSP.