"The Cantos of Ezra Pound": The Cantos Project

This article evaluates the theoretical and historical underpinnings underlying the design of The Cantos Project, a digital research environment dedicated to The Cantos of Ezra Pound. It critiques annotation as conceived in print culture and investigates possibilities offered by the digital medium to correct its shortcomings, abuses and limitations. The electronic medium cannot change the aggressive stance of annotators towards the poem they gloss but can considerably alleviate its intrusive aspect by strategies of website management. Readers are thus empowered to make use of the critical apparatus on the website to the extent they need, without being overwhelmed, or even disturbed. The editor of The Cantos Project, Roxana Preda, has learned from the reception history of her predecessor, Carroll F. Terrell: the article spells out her conclusions, which are not only operating in her current annotation of The Cantos but give suggestions relevant for a general theory of annotation in the digital age.