Symposium: Editing a Norton Anthology

Autor/inn/en	Finke, Laurie; Johnson, Barbara; Leitch, Vincent B.; McGowan, John; Williams, Jeffrey J.
Titel	Symposium: Editing a Norton Anthology
Quelle	In: College English, 66 (2003) 2, S.172-206 (35 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0010-0994
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Literature Appreciation; Anthologies; English Departments; Literary Criticism; Theories; College Students; College Faculty; Theory Practice Relationship; Editing + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Literarische Wertung; Anthology; Anthologie; Literaturkritik; Theory; Theorie; Collegestudent; Fakultät; Theorie-Praxis-Beziehung; Redaktion; Textbearbeitung
Abstract	Literature anthologies are part of the furniture of English departments. Like the putty or gunmetal-gray file cabinet that one might have gotten new or used, they are not a showpiece of academic decor, but it would be hard to imagine work spaces without them. Indeed, they are omnipresent, amassed on the shelves of campus bookstores, weighing down the backpacks of students, and testing the backs of UPS delivery staff who leave them in mailboxes. Still, while a central if everyday part of furnishings, they largely slip under the radar of one's critical antennae. This cluster of essays focuses on one commonplace but somewhat peculiar feature of anthologies: headnotes. It gathers postpartum reflections from five of the editors of the "Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism," and thus also offers an inside look at the seemingly magical process of putting together a Norton. More broadly, it offers analysis of the expectations and limitations of anthologies, as well as the relation of pedagogy and theory. Vincent Leitch, the general editor, tells the story of the genesis of the anthology, as well as commenting on the subgenre of the headnote and on the possibilities of such a project in the age of postmodernism. In a series of axioms, Barbara Johnson interrogates the limits, expectations, and counterexpectations of the subgenre, alongside an account of some of the headnotes she wrote. John McGowan reflects on the somewhat star-crossed pedagogical role of the headnote writer, who becomes a kind of carnival barker. Laurie Finke investigates how the very form of the headnotes constitutively carries out the ideology of liberal individualism. Jeffrey Williams shifts the critical focus, looking at the charges against anthologies and the "Cliffs Notes" character of features like headnotes, finding that such charges play out a professional disdain for lesser activities like pedagogy. (Contains 2 notes.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	National Council of Teachers of English. 1111 West Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096. Tel: 877-369-6283; Tel: 217-328-3870; Web site: http://www.ncte.org/journals
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10