After going to print on the first of this month, the newest version of the Norton Anthology of American Literature was delivered to me by the exceptionally-rude DHL deliveryman today — and, after reading the "Preface to the Tenth Edition," it is clear that this version of the quintessential doorstop promises to be (unsurprisingly) the wokest version yet.

"Diversity" is certainly the keyword, here — given that it is repeated in place of synonyms throughout — as the preface tries to do its job of justifying why you just dropped nearly a couple hundred United States dollars on the Tenth Edition when the Ninth Edition would’ve almost certainly sufficed.

Of the seventeen new writers included, it isn’t entirely clear from the onset if any of them are white males — not that there is anything resembling an underrepresentation of this demographic in the Anthology — but it is explicitly clear that most, if not all, are Black and/or women and/or Native American and/or Chinese and/or not Caucasian. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

The almost-exclusive addition of non-caucasion and/or women authors isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s presumably more interesting to see the addition of "well-bred" colonial women’s writing in Volume A than more uptight white dudes’, and the Modernist period is certainly ripe for today’s uber-woke discussions of identity politics.

Where the preface teeters on the border between the expected liberalism endemic to academia and full-blown wokeness, however, is in its not-so-subtle takes on racism in today’s American landscape. For example, it claims the Reconstruction’s legacy “is still being felt in the national reckoning with racism and inequality” (xxi) and separately addresses what it defines as "the renewed reckoning with anti-Black racism that began in 2014, arising from shootings of young black men—particularly of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and Michael Brown in 2014." (xxiii) I’m not saying these two quotes aren’t true or anything, but…

While I admittedly have not read these clusters (the books literally hit my doorstep today), it feels like a mild-to-moderate stretch to claim the United States of America in 2022 — in the midst of Covid-response consequences, an energy crisis, potential food shortages, rapid inflation, a potential recession, a widening wealth gap, political discontent, etc. — is still under any sort of noteworthy influence from 1877 America. (Many Americans probably don’t even know what the Reconstruction is.)

Likewise, the President of the United States during the shootings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown was Barack Obama (not exactly Andrew Johnson), and one might argue that the larger issue at hand had more to do with systemic failings with the American police state/force and mainstream media fire-stoking — themes which I assume are not discussed in Volume E, though I would be happy to be wrong — than an organic resurgence in national racism.

TL;DR racism certainly exists in today’s America, but it is not black-and-white — there are many sociopolitical factors involved in a deeply complex and diverse country that should not be downplayed. (Maybe they aren’t, to be fair. I haven’t read it, yet.)

That being said, nothing about the Tenth Edition’s changes is unexpected. They were very expected. It would have been sincerely shocking if the changes to the newest print were not intended to inject more diversity into the Anthology, but it is hard to not laugh at the preface’s somewhat-apologetic balancing by lengthening or adding high school favorites — The Turn of the Screw and The Great Gatsby, for example — to not "shortchange" the old white guys.

Nevertheless, I assume the trusty ol’ Norton Anthology of American Literature isn’t any worse for wear though the addition of more diverse authors. In fact, I’m almost certain it is better off. What will be interesting, though, are the editorial discussions accompanying each cluster — and whether or not they toe the line of objective study or inject wokeness when they’re explicitly not intended to impose interpretation upon the reader. Time will tell, but I’m betting on the latter.

• The latest version of the Norton Anthology of American Literature has a focus on balancing traditional interests with diversity. [trad vs. woke]

  • New clusters focus on "race and aesthetics", women’s rights, Civil War, Reconstruction, debating black art, The Great Depression and science fiction. (xix)

• "[W]riters strive to produce artifacts that are both intellectually serious and formally skillful[…]writers should be understood in relation to their cultural and historical situations." (xviii)

  • "the complex interrelationships between literature and history" (xviii)

• "[C]ritical acclaim" is relevant when recognizing contributions to the American literary record from "diverse" authors. (xviii)

• Volume A has been "streamlined" for cohesiveness. (xix)

  • Its focus is largely on European explorers trying to make sense of native North American cultures while justifying claiming the land.

• Volume B has a focus on "the omnipresence of race and slavery as literary and political themes". (xx)

  • Poetry was central to readers in the nineteenth century.

• The historical challenges of 1865-1914 "prefigure our own." (xxi)

  • Reconstruction vs. today’s America

• Volume D focuses on issues pertaining to "racial and social geographies" while connecting Modernism with today’s woke topics, and also adds sci-fi as a genre of the period.

• This article was originally published and its NFT was minted on July 29th, 2022.

• July 30th, 2022: The author added the "Key notes and themes" H2 and made some technical tweaks — such as changing quotation marks to straight quotes and adding page numbers. Also added the Seinfeld clip from YouTube and adjusted the wording in that section for clarity.

After going to print on the first of this month, the newest version of the Norton Anthology of American Literature was delivered to me by the exceptionally-rude DHL deliveryman today — and, after reading the "Preface to the Tenth Edition," it is clear that this version of the quintessential doorstop promises to be (unsurprisingly) the wokest version yet.

"Diversity" is certainly the keyword, here — given that it is repeated in place of synonyms throughout — as the preface tries to do its job of justifying why you just dropped nearly a couple hundred United States dollars on the Tenth Edition when the Ninth Edition would’ve almost certainly sufficed.

Of the seventeen new writers included, it isn’t entirely clear from the onset if any of them are white males — not that there is anything resembling an underrepresentation of this demographic in the Anthology — but it is explicitly clear that most, if not all, are Black and/or women and/or Native American and/or Chinese and/or not Caucasian. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

The almost-exclusive addition of non-caucasion and/or women authors isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s presumably more interesting to see the addition of "well-bred" colonial women’s writing in Volume A than more uptight white dudes’, and the Modernist period is certainly ripe for today’s uber-woke discussions of identity politics.

Where the preface teeters on the border between the expected liberalism endemic to academia and full-blown wokeness, however, is in its not-so-subtle takes on racism in today’s American landscape. For example, it claims the Reconstruction’s legacy “is still being felt in the national reckoning with racism and inequality” (xxi) and separately addresses what it defines as "the renewed reckoning with anti-Black racism that began in 2014, arising from shootings of young black men—particularly of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and Michael Brown in 2014." (xxiii) I’m not saying these two quotes aren’t true or anything, but…

While I admittedly have not read these clusters (the books literally hit my doorstep today), it feels like a mild-to-moderate stretch to claim the United States of America in 2022 — in the midst of Covid-response consequences, an energy crisis, potential food shortages, rapid inflation, a potential recession, a widening wealth gap, political discontent, etc. — is still under any sort of noteworthy influence from 1877 America. (Many Americans probably don’t even know what the Reconstruction is.)

Likewise, the President of the United States during the shootings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown was Barack Obama (not exactly Andrew Johnson), and one might argue that the larger issue at hand had more to do with systemic failings with the American police state/force and mainstream media fire-stoking — themes which I assume are not discussed in Volume E, though I would be happy to be wrong — than an organic resurgence in national racism.

TL;DR racism certainly exists in today’s America, but it is not black-and-white — there are many sociopolitical factors involved in a deeply complex and diverse country that should not be downplayed. (Maybe they aren’t, to be fair. I haven’t read it, yet.)

That being said, nothing about the Tenth Edition’s changes is unexpected. They were very expected. It would have been sincerely shocking if the changes to the newest print were not intended to inject more diversity into the Anthology, but it is hard to not laugh at the preface’s somewhat-apologetic balancing by lengthening or adding high school favorites — The Turn of the Screw and The Great Gatsby, for example — to not "shortchange" the old white guys.

Nevertheless, I assume the trusty ol’ Norton Anthology of American Literature isn’t any worse for wear though the addition of more diverse authors. In fact, I’m almost certain it is better off. What will be interesting, though, are the editorial discussions accompanying each cluster — and whether or not they toe the line of objective study or inject wokeness when they’re explicitly not intended to impose interpretation upon the reader. Time will tell, but I’m betting on the latter.

• The latest version of the Norton Anthology of American Literature has a focus on balancing traditional interests with diversity. [trad vs. woke]

  • New clusters focus on "race and aesthetics", women’s rights, Civil War, Reconstruction, debating black art, The Great Depression and science fiction. (xix)

• "[W]riters strive to produce artifacts that are both intellectually serious and formally skillful[…]writers should be understood in relation to their cultural and historical situations." (xviii)

  • "the complex interrelationships between literature and history" (xviii)

• "[C]ritical acclaim" is relevant when recognizing contributions to the American literary record from "diverse" authors. (xviii)

• Volume A has been "streamlined" for cohesiveness. (xix)

  • Its focus is largely on European explorers trying to make sense of native North American cultures while justifying claiming the land.

• Volume B has a focus on "the omnipresence of race and slavery as literary and political themes". (xx)

  • Poetry was central to readers in the nineteenth century.

• The historical challenges of 1865-1914 "prefigure our own." (xxi)

  • Reconstruction vs. today’s America

• Volume D focuses on issues pertaining to "racial and social geographies" while connecting Modernism with today’s woke topics, and also adds sci-fi as a genre of the period.

• This article was originally published and its NFT was minted on July 29th, 2022.

• July 30th, 2022: The author added the "Key notes and themes" H2 and made some technical tweaks — such as changing quotation marks to straight quotes and adding page numbers. Also added the Seinfeld clip from YouTube and adjusted the wording in that section for clarity.