Katharine Eisaman Maus

Stephen Greenblatt

William Shakespeare

Andrew Gurr

Walter Cohen

Jean Elizabeth Howard

Presents Shakespeare's complete works accompanied by timelines, genealogies, and selected archival documents

The Norton Shakespeare

Jean Howard

The Norton Shakespeare: Essential Plays / The Sonnets offers the twenty most-assigned plays and all the sonnets in a compact, portable, and value-priced paperback with a host of features. Organized by genre, this volume includes the genre introductions enthusiastically received in The Norton Shakespeare, Second Edition: 'Shakespearean Tragedy' by Stephen Greenblatt, 'Shakespearean Comedy' by Katharine Eisaman Maus, 'Shakespearean History' by Jean E. Howard, and 'Shakespearean Romance' by Walter Cohen. Like its parent volume, this concise edition gives students the vibrant introductions, readable single-column format, helpful glosses and notes, and extensive reference materials-maps, a timeline, annotated bibliographies and film lists, documents-that have made The Norton Shakespeare, Second Edition the best-selling classroom edition worldwide.

Essential Plays, the Sonnets

Stephen J. Greenblatt

Upon publication in 1997, The Norton Shakespeare set a new standard for teaching editions of Shakespeare's complete works.

Romances and Poems

Gordon McMullan

Jean E. Howard

Suzanne Gossett

Both an enhanced digital edition—the first edited specifically for undergraduates—and a handsome print volume, The Norton Shakespeare, Third Edition, provides a freshly edited text, acclaimed apparatus, and an unmatched value.

Walter Cohen argues that the history of European literature and of each of its standard periods can be illuminated by comparative consideration of the different literary languages within Europe and of the relationship of European literature to world literature. The global history of literature from the ancient to the present can be divided into five main, overlapping stages. European literature emerges from world literature before the birth of Europe--during Antiquity, whose Classical languages are the heirs to the complex heritage of the Old World. That legacy is later transmitted by Latin to the various vernaculars. The distinctiveness of this process lies in the gradual displacement of Latin by a system of intravernacular leadership dominated by the Romance languages. An additional unique feature is the global expansion of Western Europe's languages and characteristic literary forms, especially the novel, beginning in the Renaissance. This expansion ultimately issues in the reintegration of European literature into world literature, in the creation of today's global literary system. It is in these interrelated trajectories that the specificity of European literature is to be found. This ongoing relationship of European literature to other parts of the world emerges most clearly at the level not of theme or mimesis but of form. One conclusion is that literary history possesses a certain systematicity. Another is that language and literature are not only the products of major historical change but also its agents. Such claims, finally, depend on rejecting the opposition between the general and the specific, between synthetic and local knowledge.

The West and the World from Antiquity to the Present

A History of European Literature

Public Theater in Renaissance England and Spain

Drama of a Nation

Walter Cohen argues that the history of European literature and each of its standard periods can be illuminated by comparative consideration of the different literary languages within Europe and by the ties of European literature to world literature. World literature is marked by recurrent, systematic features, outcomes of the way that language and literature are at once the products of major change and its agents. Cohen tracks these features from ancient times to the present, distinguishing five main overlapping stages. Within that framework, he shows that European literatures ongoing internal and external relationships are most visible at the level of form rather than of thematic statement or mimetic representation. European literature emerges from world literature before the birth of Europe — during antiquity, whose Classical languages are the heirs to the complex heritage of Afro-Eurasia. This legacy is later transmitted by Latin to the various vernaculars. The uniqueness of the process lies in the gradual displacement of the learned language by the vernacular, long dominated by Romance literatures. That development subsequently informs the second crucial differentiating dimension of European literature: the multicontinental expansion of its languages and characteristic genres, especially the novel, beginning in the Renaissance. This expansion ultimately results in the reintegration of European literature into world literature and thus in the creation of todays global literary system. The distinctiveness of European literature is to be found in these interrelated trajectories.

August Macke

August Macke (1887-1914) was a master of German Expressionism, a movement which sprang up in the early 1900s with the intent to forego physical reality in search of its emotional counterpart, with a particular emphasis on expressing dark moods of tragedy and angst. Macke was a master of color and form, producing eye-catching canvases that evoke a strong sympathetic reaction in the viewer. He was equally at home portraying the sun drenched streets of Tunisia, the cloudy sky around the Bonn cathedral, and the faceless multitude of a crowded railway station. In this compelling text, Walter Cohen examines the brief life of an artist whose seemingly limitless potential was tragically cut short by his untimely death.

Walter Cohen

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