ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emergence and evolution of the genre of the anthology, which would become a privileged vehicle for the consolidation and circulation of a Western minoritarian model of homosexuality. The chapter discusses various categories of analysis pertinent to the study of anthologies, such as selection, arrangement, and labeling, before tracing the history of the anthology, beginning with Meleager’s Greek Anthology, and its shifting relationship to the modern nation. Special attention is paid to the introduction of a chronological arrangement of texts in late-nineteenth-century anthologies. Moreover, because most pre-Stonewall “gay” anthologies were international, that is, they contained a significant number of foreign texts in translation, the differences between international and nation-based anthologies will be discussed.
