In another interview, Marjorie Perloff has this to say; intereting in
light of Jon's comments:
DC: Perhaps what is lacking in most journals and anthologies is an
inclusionary approach to poetry and not one dependent upon being a
card-carrying member of a particular poetic group. Such a criticism
could be leveled against some of the experimentalists as well as the
mainstream.
MP: Yes, but anthologies are, by definition, problematic today because
no gathering can be definitive and perhaps it's best to make up one's
own for teaching purposes.
DC: If you were to edit a poetry anthology and the publisher has given
you total control over the anthology from inception to publication‹,
how would you choose what would be included? What would be the
governing principle that would hold the anthology together?
MP: Well, I've never wanted to edit an anthology because I'm not sure
there's a good way of doing it at the moment: there are too many
schools, factions, movements, interests. But if I did, my criterion
would be VALUE. I would want to include only those poets whose work is
distinctive, original, really interesting, regardless of male/female
ratios, identity politics, and so on. So that's why I don't edit an
anthology. These days one must be sensitive to all the special
interests.
In teaching (which is a bit like anthologizing, isn't it?), I do
relatively few poets. This year in "Modern Poetry" at USC, a 15-week
semester—I taught Eliot, Pound, Stein, Duchamp, Stevens, Moore, Loy,
Williams--and then Aimé Césaire even though in translation, because I
think he's a much stronger poet than, say, Claude McKay or Langston
Hughes and I did want to teach some African-American poetry. Notice I
omitted Frost and H.D. Simply a matter of taste: I never teach work I
don't really like.
Doug
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
Latest books:
Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
There are no wrong notes!
Thelonious Sphere Monk
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