Anthology

An Anthology or anthology ( gr ἀνθολογία ANTHOLOGIA " collection of flowers ", see the Latin calque florilegium ), also Spicilegium ( Gleanings ), a collection of selected texts or text excerpts in book form or in the broader sense is a thematic compilation of literary, musical, or graphic works. It is a form of publication by a publisher responsible. The etymologically to the Greek attributable term " anthology " is understood as " Florilegium " mostly used in its Latin calque to bring what had been considered high or exemplary text selection expression that was characteristic of the anthologies of Greek and Roman antiquity.

In ancient anthologies shaped the tradition of education deemed to be exemplary authors publishing exemplary works, especially epigrams. In addition to the compilation of selected texts of various authors of the concept of the anthology was also used for the selection of texts in each case of a single author.

A special form of the anthology is the reading book. If texts of various authors compiled for educational purposes, it is called an anthology (Greek: " the learning of useful, "). In smooth transition to anthology and " Florilegium " this term refers primarily to one of prose or excerpts existing pattern collection by famous authors for educational purposes.

In general, publish anthologies of previously published elsewhere texts, while the periodical Musenalmanche a selection previously included in the form of a poetic " Vademecum " unpublished seals for the coming year. In the also the annual paperbacks often different fictional or prosaic, but partly also non- fictional texts are published. The distinction is rather ideal types; here is since the beginning of the 19th century increasingly the term of the anthology by.

History of anthologies

The term ANTHOLOGIA who initially called in ancient Greek concretely "Gathering Flowers", for the proposition Anthologiae collection of Greek astronomers Vettius Valens ( second century AD) was first used as a title for a compilation. Together with the minor form ἀνθολόγιον ( anthológion ) and the Latin Lehnbildung florilegium remained the term of the Byzantine period and the Latin Middle Ages to the modern era in use and has then in the 18th century in the national languages ​​in general for collections of poetry, aphorisms or more rarely prosaic texts and occasionally dramatic excerpts enforced.

Collections of epigrams already existed in ancient times. In the Hellenistic period the flower imagery has been established for such collections of poetry - for example by the στέφανος ( " ring " ) of the philosopher and poet Meleager of Gadara (70 BC) and of Philip of Thessaloniki.

Based on them and the " Kyklos of Agathias " ( about 560 ) was created by the Byzantine theologian Konstantinos Kefalas, 900 a, divided into categories anthology, which has been widely extended. The Heidelberg Codex Palatinus (Latin for " Palatine manuscript " ) gave her the name Anthologia Palatina. Also in Byzantium edited the humanist Maximos Planudes in 1300 the Anthologia Planudea. In the late Middle Ages collections created everyday Latin poetry such as the Carmina Burana - a theme that continued in 1573, the French classical scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger.

By Erasmus of Rotterdam anthologies also received didactic functions, as in the Sentences collection Adagiorum Collectanea ( 1500).

After 1700 published unpublished poems by Benjamin Neukirch, and in 1781 named Friedrich Schiller 's poem anthology collection. A major French poem anthology was Le Parnassus contemporain ( The Contemporary Parnassus, 1866, 1871, 1876) by Alphonse Lemerre.

In the 17th and 18th centuries also names such as " treasury ", " sample collection ", " Helicon ", " stock ", " anthology " as well as in the 19th century find interchangeably as " ( Poet ) album", "the poet book", " Parnassus ", " Deklamatorium " ( lecture book), " treasure house ", " ballads, songs treasure" and the like; the conceptual transitions are fluid.

The fantastic literature received her collective work in 1941 by Jorge Luis Borges. From the French André Breton comes the anthology de l' Humour Noir (1937 ). Höllerer presented in 1956 the mid-century poetry book together. Then came - with increasing interest and prosperity of the readership - various anthologies.

The texts published in anthologies are currently being compiled by different criteria or selection criteria; contemporary anthologies track against the original intentions of an exemplary - model text collection with the claim canonization today other goals, for example, as a representative overview of certain authors, genres or literary directions, the emergence or development of a literary period and especially in the Anglo- America sometimes also document the literary work of a single author. It can also be arranged according to thematic or motivic aspects and focus on the selection.

Aspects of anthologies

Most anthologies are dedicated to a particular point of view. There are a number of specific ways:

  • Literary texts of the same genus: eg poems, sayings, stories, detective stories, short stories, travel stories, love songs, fantastic graphics, German fairy tales;
  • Authors of special epochs: approximately narrator of the 20th century, unknown Swiss authors, late minstrel, Roman historian, architect of the Art Nouveau;
  • Works or artists in certain regions: for example, Persian poetry, French Impressionism, legends from Austria, Bulgarian folk songs;
  • Anthologies on topics and experiences: anxiety, encounter, images of childhood, railway, (lost ) homeland, oriental nights, dark humor, romance, desire, dream, science fiction, Christmas.
68723
de