Dominic Fox wrote:
<<Does anyone know (or have a convincing theory about) why there are
next to no women poets in the Stand "Poetry of the Committed
Individual" anthology that both Hill and Harrison turn up in? Women
not committed
enough?>>

Erminia Passannanti wrote:
<<Of course there are not committed women  poets in the Stand
"Poetry of the Committed individual" anthology.  ....what do you
think! We are only interested in diets, size and measures (of penis,
of course), wedding etiquette, gossips, moreover we are not
intelligent (notoriously), and we are not individuals. That's why!>>

David Latane offered some information about this particular
anthology that attempted to provide a historical context, for which
I am grateful. (I wonder if EP [above] could provide some
evidence--names, titles, historical information, etc.--from the
Stand anthology for the remarks above, if she has read it,
caricature being most effective when based in reality.) Personally,
I am at a disadvantage because I am not familiar with the book in
question, but I am interested in the politics and history of
anthology making in general. There was something of a conservative
backlash in the US a few years ago against what was seen as the
"political correctness" of the new Heath Anthology of American
Literature. It was said that "better work" had been dropped in order
to include "weaker work" by minorities and women. On the other hand,
there have been many recent anthologies--& literary competitions,
etc.--limited to women or to some other historically excluded group.
There was an incident--also a few years back--in which a call was
published for stories concerning "women's experience." The editors
were appalled when they discovered they had selected a story by a
male writer, which they promptly excluded, presumably on the grounds
that no man could present women's experience. (If that wasn't the
reason, it was a pure exercise in cornering the market.) There are
large provinces of literary geography, it seems, that have been
effectively integrated by women in recent years. Would it be
possible to conceive an anthology that was edited entirely "blind"
to gender, race, etc.? What would be the value, if any, of such an
anthology?

jd
======================
Joseph Duemer
School of Liberal Arts, box 5750
Clarkson University
Potsdam NY 13699
315.268.3967
[log in to unmask]
http://web.northnet.org/duemer
http://www.grammarbitch.com/ppp/index.html
======================

Through the loop
of the rusted padlock
a blade of green

   . . .

In the bed
of a rusted war truck
the farmer begins his rice

[John Brandi, from Stone Garland, 1999]




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