Archive: Around Town

New on college and university shelves this spring is The Norton Anthology of Drama, the first of its kind to join the prestigious Norton Anthology literary series. The Anthology is co-authored by Cornell Professor of Theatre J. Ellen Gainor, Stanton Garner Jr. of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Martin Puchner of Columbia University.

This two-volume set features 65 plays ranging from the ancient Greeks to the best works of contemporary world writers. This is the first major drama anthology by the publisher, whose Norton anthologies of British, American and world literature have shaped classroom teaching for decades.

Three masterpieces of 20th-century drama -- Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot", Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night", and Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire"-- are published together for the first time with annotations and critical introductions for the student of drama as well as for the general reader. In addition to the historical periods and artistic movements usually covered by general anthologies, the collection includes Roman drama, classical Indian, Chinese and Japanese drama, and for the first time in any introductory drama anthology, 20th-century Arabic drama - Tawfiq al-Hakim's "Song of Death."

"Coming from theater and literature departments, we tried to add our knowledge of these overlapping disciplines by creating a comprehensive anthology of dramatic literature," said Gainor and her collaborators in the anthology's preface. "Experiencing live dramatic performances and reading plays on the printed page both bring a richness of experience that has always been a vital part of cultures and societies throughout the world."

Cornell has a long tradition of editorship for Norton, beginning with Emeritus Professor of English M.H. Abrams, who conceived the first Norton Anthology of English Literature in 1962 and edited it through seven editions. J. Ellen Gainor currently serves as the Associate Dean of the Graduate School and is the author of Shaw's Daughters: Dramatic and Narrative Constructions of Gender and Susan Glaspell in Context: American Theater, Culture, and Politics 1915-48.

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