Towards a Problematic Canon: Indian Poetry Anthologies and the Construction of Modernism

Abstract

The history of modern Indian poetry in English as evidenced in anthologies is riddled with many modernist tendencies, both linguistic and political. Within anthologies, poetry becomes not merely literary and artistic pieces, but agents in a larger narrative. To establish an argument for Indian poetic modernism (post-1950) in anthologies requires an inquiry into the processes in which editors, through the paratextual matters, (titles, prefaces, introductory notes, headnotes, endnotes etc.) help create a persuasiveness about newness or modernity. With more than 200 Indian poetry anthologies published since 1950, there is also the problem of selecting an authoritative volume that reflects the national canon. By juxtaposing Gérard Genette’s (1991) paratextual theory and Ramond Williams’ (1977) epochal theory of classifying the dominant, residual, and emergent cultural tendencies, this paper attempts to understand poetry anthologies as commodities and cultural vehicles constantly striving for dominance. An argument is made that any canon – modernist or otherwise – is a sub-product of this cultural and material struggle. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide an alternate understanding of the arrival of modern Indian English poetry canon as a form of construction that occurs within the pages of anthologies.