ANTHOLOGIES AND DISCUSSION ON ESSENTIALISM AND ANTI-ESSENTIALISM IN AMERICAN FEMINIST EXPERIMENTAL POETRY

In this article, which is basically divided into two thematic parts, I deal with American poetry from the perspective of feminist theories. In the first thematic part, I show that around the 60s and 70s of the 20thcentury the work of feminist theoreticians, representatives of the gynocritical pre-poststructuralist method, led to the questioning of andocentric anthologies and the ways of forming male canons based on the exclusion of female poets and other minority groups. It was important for me to point out how feminist critics and poets described the status of the few female poets in the canon and how they began to publish anthologies of women's poetry within mainstream American poetry. Female poets in canonical anthologies and narratives of the history of poetry usually functioned as tokens, exceptions to the rule, which confirmed the belief that female poets could not produce significant, universal poetic value. During the 80s of the 20th century, poststructuralist feminist theories became significant in the interpretation of poetry, and in the field of experimental poetry. This led to experimental female poets starting to publish anthologies of innovative women's poetry during the 90s. These anthologies appear in a period that is called post-feminist, and that term implies the belief that we no longer need feminism because the position of women in society, including the context of production, evaluation and dissemination of poetry, has improved considerably. This thesis was advocated by the critic Jennifer Ashton in her critique of the anthology of experimental women's poetry. Her criticism caused a stormy reaction in the community of experimental women poets, Juliana Spahr, Jennifer Young, Jennifer Scapetone, and Christine Wertheim, among others, who argue that the anthologies are important because they show that feminist experimental poets do exist, contributing to the visibility of their marginalised production. The experimental women poets also point out that women's anthologies are especially necessary at a time when conservative social forces want to abolish women's rights for which they fought in the 20th century.