- Norton Anthology of English Literature
"The Norton Anthology of English Literature" is an anthology of
English literature published by theW. W. Norton & Company . It has gone through eight editions since its inception in 1962; it is the publisher’s best-selling anthology, with some eight million copies in print. [Donadio, Rachel,"The New York Times," January 8, 2006, [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/books/review/08donadio.html/ "Keeper of the Canon," ] ] The influential critic and scholar ofRomanticism ,M.H. Abrams , served as General Editor for the first seven editions of the anthology before handing the job toStephen Greenblatt , a renownedShakespeare scholar andHarvard professor.Spread across six volumes and divided into two sets, the anthology provides an overview of
poetry ,drama ,prose fiction ,essay s, letters from "Beowulf " to the 21st century.Format
The eighth edition of "The Norton Anthology of English Literature" comprises six volumes, sold in two sets of three. The first set includes the volumes “The
Middle Ages ,” “The Sixteenth Century and The Early Seventeenth Century,” and “Restoration and the Eighteenth Century;” the second set includes “The Romantic Period,” “The Victorian Age,” and “The Twentieth Century and After.” The writings are arranged by author, with each author presented chronologically by date of birth. Historical and biographical information is provided in a series of headnotes for each author and in introductions for each of the time periods.Within this structure, the anthology incorporates a number of thematically linked "clusters" of texts pertaining to significant contemporary concerns. For example, "The Sixteenth Century and The Early Seventeenth Century" contains four such clusters under the headings, "Literature of The Sacred," "The Wider World," "The Science of Self and World," and "Voices of the War." The first of these includes four contemporary English translations of an identical passage from
the Bible , those ofWilliam Tyndale , theGeneva Bible , the Douay-Rheims Version, and the Authorized (King James) Version; selections from the writings of influential Protestant thinkers of the period, including Tyndale,John Calvin ,Anne Askew ,John Foxe andRichard Hooker ; as well as selections from the "Book of Common Prayer " and the "Book of Homilies ".History
Published in 1962, the first edition of The Norton Anthology was based on an
English literature survey course Abrams and fellow editorDavid Daiches taught atCornell University . ["The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6th ed.," ed. Abrams et al, 1993, xxx] The anthology underwent periodic revisions every few years. The fifth edition in 1986 included the addition of the full texts of Joyce’s “The Dead” and Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness ". The sixth edition, published in 1993, includedNadine Gordimer andFleur Adcock . The Seventh edition addedSeamus Heaney ’s translation of “Beowulf ,”Shakespeare ’s "Twelfth Night ", andChinua Achebe ’s novel "Things Fall Apart ". This edition also saw the addition of a piece of edible "snack paper" between pages 752 and 753 for hungry late-night studiers.Greenblatt joined the editorial team during the 1990s: "When Norton asked Greenblatt - who was already editor of "The Norton Shakespeare" - to join the team as Abrams's deputy in the mid-90's, Abrams said he was initially skeptical because of their different critical approaches, but quickly came around. The two had first met in the 80's, when they once delivered opposing lectures. "It was great fun," Abrams said. "He always claimed that I bent his sword. I always claimed he had the better, not of the argument, but of the rhetoric of the argument." [Donadio, Rachel, "The New York Times," January 8, 2006, [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/books/review/08donadio.html/ "Keeper of the Canon,"] ] Another addition has been an increase in women writers: "The new edition, Greenblatt said, includes 68 women writers, more than eight times as many as in the first edition." [Reich, David, "Boston College Magazine," [http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/winter_2007/endnotes/ye-olde-standards.html/ "Making the Cut in the Norton Anthology,"] ]
Competing Anthologies
The seventies saw the emergence of
Pearson ’s "The Oxford Anthology of English Literature," edited byHarold Bloom andLionel Trilling . It was discontinued. Bloom, a former student of Abrams’, noted, “We were defeated in battle.” [Donadio, Rachel,"The New York Times," January 8, 2006, [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/books/review/08donadio.html/ "Keeper of the Canon," ] ]"The
Longman Anthology ofBritish Literature " is also a competitor. Of this relationship, Joyce Jensen of the "New York Times " wrote in 1999, "The first stone in the war between Longman and W. W. Norton, theDavid and Goliath of the anthology publishing world, has been cast. With the recent publication of "The Longman Anthology of British Literature," Longman has mounted a challenge to Norton to become the literary anthology of choice in colleges and universities around the country." [Jensen, Joyce, "The New York Times", Jan. 30, 1999. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0DD1638F933A05752C0A96F958260 “Think Tank; As Anthologies Duel, Women Gain Ground,”] ] "Longman Anthology" editor David Damrosch commented on the Seventh edition of the Norton Anthology, arguing::Though I could wish that the new edition of the Norton had reflected more independent thought and less reactive borrowing of the most visible innovations of our table of contents, I am very glad that Norton has now also adopted the six-volume format.1 (footnote) Then again, perhaps the Norton hasn’t simply been imitating us in its rapid inclusions of
Marie de France ,Hogarth , "The Beggar’s Opera ", "Frankenstein ", and a range of new context groupings whose topics track ours with what may only appear to be beagle-like devotion. TheSeptuagint was produced by independent translators whose versions all came out alike, and this history may have repeated itself here. [David Damrosch, “Roundtable: The Mirror and the Window: Reflections on Anthology Construction,” "Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture,"1:1, 2001]"The Norton Anthology" responded that:
:The new Norton is not (as Longman personnel have charged) simply an attempt to copy Longman… Norton has defined its scope by uniting works whose common bond is the English language, claiming that a shared vocabulary is essential to cultural unity. [Saupe, Karen, “Roundtable: Norton and Longman Travel Separate Roads,” "Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture,"1:1, 2001]
Criticism
In 2006, Rachel Donadio of the "
The New York Times " stated, "Although assailed by some for being too canonical and by others for faddishly expanding the reading list, the anthology has prevailed over the years, due in large part to the talents of Abrams, who refined the art of stuffing 13 centuries of literature into 6,000-odd pages of wispy cigarette paper." [Donadio, Rachel,"Keeper of the Canon," "The New York Times," January 8, 2006, [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/books/review/08donadio.html/ Keeper of the Canon] ]Sarah A. Kelen summarizes the changes to the NAEL's inclusions of medieval literature through successive editions, demonstrating the way the Anthology's contents reflect contemporary scholarship. [Kelen, Sarah A, "Literature Compass" 1:1, December, 2004, [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.proxy.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2004.00030.x?cookieSet=1/ "Which Middle Ages? Literature Anthologies and Critical Ideologies," ] ]
References
External links
* [http://www.wwnorton.com/college/titles/english/nael8/ Official website]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.