Anthology

We explain what an anthology is, its characteristics, its component parts and examples. Also, how to make an anthology.

anthology
Anthologies are ideal for introducing new authors.

What is an anthology?

An anthology (from the Greek anthos“flower”, and legein“choose”) It is an ordered and justified compilation of different works of an artistic genre considered outstanding or relevant by the person carrying out the selection (the anthologist either anthologist).

Usually all the works that comprise it revolve around a specific theme, perspective or historical moment. Thus, there can be literary, musical, cinematographic anthologies, etc., applying thematic, period, genre, etc. criteria.

The anthologies contain artistic works by different authors, different periods or different nature a, depending on the common thread that serves as their core. It is possible, for example, to anthologize the great love poems of the 20th century, or different versions of the same musical theme performed by different musicians in different musical genres.

Be that as it may, these are compilation projects, whose author is precisely the one who makes the selection, and who usually has the opportunity to explain his criteria in an introductory text.

Anthologies are ideal for publicizing new pieces or authors, who share space with other more recognized ones, or because they summon the reader by the central theme and not by the names of the compiled authors. Therefore, variety is always a point in favor of anthologies.

In the world of literature, anthologies are so frequent that they practically constitute a genre in themselves.

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See also: Biography

Characteristics of an anthology

The anthologies are characterized by the following:

  • have an author of the selection (the anthologist), while the collected works can be from very different authors, eras or trends.
  • Generally have a central criterion or nuclear, which justifies the selection of the compiled works: theme of the works, period of creation, etc. Also a type of work to choose from, that is, an artistic genre: poetry, narrative, music, etc.
  • can include entire works, or fragments representative of them. It is also common for the anthologist to make notes, annotations or comments throughout the material.
  • They depend entirely on the criteria of the anthologist, that is, there can be many different anthologies on the same topic with important differences between them, depending on the criteria of who made the selection.
  • are not definitive but they can be elaborated again in later editions and works added or excluded. They should always be considered as a partial and temporary vision of the matter.

Parts of an anthology

music anthology
Anthologies usually include an explanation of the criteria for selecting the works.

Anthologies usually consist of:

  • A preface or introductory text in which the anthologist explains the criteria for his selection, tells of the difficulties he faced or the importance he attributes to the chosen texts, in short, tells of his criteria as curator of the exhibition.
  • The body of the anthology which is the set of works (or their fragments) chosen, ordered according to a temporal (historical), alphabetical, or personal (anthologist) criterion.
  • References of anthologized works that is, what is the original context of each of the works (or fragments) that you selected for your anthology, along with important bibliographic data and the author's life. In many cases this information can also go in the body of the anthology itself.
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Examples of anthologies

Some examples of well-known anthologies are:

  • Anthology of fantasy literature compiled in 1940 by the Argentine writers Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares.
  • Navigation of three centuries: Basic Anthology of Venezuelan Poetry 1826-2013 compiled in 2003 by the poet Joaquín Marta Sosa.
  • personal anthology a book by Argentine author Ricardo Piglia in which he brings together fictions, essays and other materials of his own authorship.
  • Classical music anthology in which Phillip G. Downs brings together 76 representative works of music from the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe.

How to make an anthology?

The work of composing an anthology is always vast and personal, and there are no formulas to follow to do it, but very broadly it can be summarized in the following steps:

  • Choose the theme. Every anthology has a heart, a central theme that allows us to choose the texts that will compose it. Do we want to study the music of a specific period in our country? The political poetry of a specific period in our entire region? The young authors who are popular there but haven't published any books yet? The next steps depend on the choice of the topic.
  • Make a survey on the topic. This means that once we know the topic, we must investigate: read, listen, ask, consult other similar anthologies, in short, document ourselves as best as possible to know what there is on the topic.
  • Carry out the selection. Once we know what there is on the subject, we must proceed to choose. To do this, we must determine our criteria, which although they may be subjective (which we like!), we must also be able to say something about it, explain to those who later review our work what was the spirit that prompted us to choose some and not to others.
  • Structure the anthology. After choosing the works that will make up the anthology, we must give them a specific order, which will form part of our criteria as anthologists (from the most recent to the oldest, or vice versa, according to the years of age of the author, according to the initial letter of his securities). Once this is done, we must decide if we will place the information about each author next to the work, or at the end, and if we will construct a text that serves as an introduction to each one, or we will simply leave the reader at their ease.
  • Compose a preface. The introductory text or preface, that is, the introduction, is essential in an anthology. That is where we will be accountable as anthologists, explaining the reason for our anthology, what our criteria were, our motivations, in short, everything that we consider necessary for the reader to know to enjoy and better contextualize our selection.
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References

  • “Anthology” on Wikipedia.
  • “Anthology” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
  • “Etymology of Anthology” in Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
  • “Project 5. Literary anthology” (video) in Aula Animada.
  • “Personal anthology” in CCH Academic Portal (Mexico).
Categories Art