Vestibules to the “world of topsyturvydom”
Vestibules to the “world of topsyturvydom”

– peritexts in nonsense anthologies

Summary/Abstract: In this article we examine eighteen selected nonsense anthologies published in the UK sincethe 1920s, working on the assumption that they define, re-shape, and visually reinterpret thegenre for a general audience in parallel to scholarly approaches to nonsense. In the first partof our paper we look at the process of anthologising and its main functions, followed by anoverview of key nonsense anthologies. In the second part, we inspect peritexts that influencethe reception of these collections and, by extension, the perception of literary nonsense,looking specifically at book titles, cover designs, tables of contents, prefaces, postfaces, andannexes. In doing so we hope to reveal the implied reader of the anthologies, comment ontheir coverage relative to the established Victorian canon and recognise the distinctivefeatures of the genre, foregrounded by the anthologists’ editorial and aesthetic choices.

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