Anthologies as reading horizon in the creation of the canon of the Spanish Poetry

Abstract

The present paper revises poetic anthologies which have become decisive in the design of the canon of the Spanish poetry during the 20^th century and the last two decades. It departs from the theoretical and methodological considerations of Claudio Guillén which show how the anthology itself works as an instrument of self-selection. The itinerary of certain poetic anthologies that have developed into canonical milestones reveals the interdependence between concepts such as canon, anthology and History of Literature. This tour takes us to certain essential places of poetic anthologies of the 20^th century -from the first attempts of modernist anthologies to the ones by Ribes, Castellet or Luis Antonio de Villena- and manifests: (1) the canonising power of certain anthologies; (2) the reactions which take place in the fight for the visibility space which is often grabbed from sectors pushed to periphery by the new canon established by the anthology; (3) the loss of autonomy in the artistic field that takes places when power intercedes or (4) the complexity of the boundary between the ethical and the aesthetic in certain historic contexts.