1. History of the Book Week 9: Anthologies

2. The essay by Laura Riding and Robert Graves, while very useful, might lead you to think that anthologies are part of older publishing traditions, particularly in the 19 th and 20 th centuries (which is very true), but not so much for the 21 st century (which is NOT true). Despite the fact that in English classes we tend to think about literature in terms of specific authors and specific works, anthologies remain a pervasive and hugely important form.

3. Writers are still publishing in anthologies of all kinds—and we will be looking at several of these versions of literary anthologies today. For instance, here are anthologies in which the writing of Benjamin Percy, acontemporary writer and graphic novelist, appears from 2011 to 2013.

4. We are probably most familiar with the Anthologies like we’ve seen in college: Literary anthologies for Survey classes such as the Nortons for British, American, and World literatures. We are also probably familiar with the issues of “canon formation” much like the points raised by Riding and Graves, the selection process that includes some authors but not others.

5. Out in the publishing world genre-specific anthologies remain vitally important and profitable: Here, short story collections, both single- author and thematic multi- author.

6. One of the most influential genre-specific forms: horror anthologies. Many forms of pulp fiction first came to public notice as anthologies in the 19 th century (NOT mentioned by R &G : crime fiction and true-crime writing; westerns; romance; erotic writing; sports fiction and nonfiction.

7. The process of canon formation for a “major” author we saw in the Shakespeare First Folio continues to be a standard strategy for anointing major artists: here, the Beatles Anthology

8. Among the most successful contemporary anthologies are those aimed at specific audiences or target demographics

9. Special-occasion and gift books also still form a solid part of the publishing market, continuing a long tradition from the Victorian period while sharpening the focus on a target audience.

10. One important variant of this process is to use anthologies to define cultural identities, so that a multitude of authors and voices are brought together in communityand/ or political solidarity: here African- American poetry claiming its own literary space.

11. Anthologies also dominate the publishing world of ephemera: books created less formally with staplers and cardstock coversTo this day the vast majority of poetry is published in anthologies, mainly chapbooks and other relatively informal book forms.

12. All sorts of forms from music albums to newspapers are also anthologies. And sure, the digital world has affected presentation, but not the diversity of content. So the big question becomes how all this content is put together: in what order, with what themes, using what designs— and all of this targeted for what audiences?

13. Let’s take a look at a specific magazine famous for its ability to market to a fairly wide target audience of women: Cosmopolitan. Its print cover (and the online front page is very similar) gives title highlights for articles that are not just highlighted, but that are the best representatives of the several categories of article included in the magazine, and carefully organized as a controlled reading progression.

14. Notice the categories: Cover Story Cosmo News Man Manual Entertainment Fun Fearless Fashion Looking Great (and some more on the next page) What’s the point of this organization? How does it set up a reading program for its target audience of women?

15. In the body of the magazine, how and why are the different categories distinguished by their layout and design?

16. Apply this approach to any magazine…

17. This week the Object of Conversation will be one magazine of any kind that you consider interesting enough to analyze. This choice does not have to be a literary magazine—it can be mass market, cult zine, or any other form of contemporary magazine-type anthology. Go through a similar process of analysis for this magazine. You will need to choose and upload onto our Moodle Forum this week some scanned pages of this magazine for the class to see; uploads must be complete by midnight on Saturday, March 22. This object will be the basis for undergraduates to produce at least 200 words, and grad students to produce at least 300 words, on your chosen magazine. What is going on in this magazine as an anthology? How does what you see going on fit (or NOT fit) your analysis of a “house style” for that magazine?Then you will choose two magazines to comment on yourself as response threads in the forum, completing these responses by Midnight on Monday, March 24.