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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] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%