Tragedy in Transition

"Sarah Annes Brown and Catherine Silverstone have assembled fourteen essays that adopt a 'transhistorical' approach in their edited collection, Tragedy in Transition. Although not centred in early modern drama, Jonson, John Ford, and especially Shakespeare are prominently featured in this superb, wide-ranging volume that extends chronologically from Sophocles to filmmaker Quentin Tarentino." (Studies in English Literature, July 2009)

"[It] was first voiced in 1961, that the twentieth century saw 'the death of tragedy' … .We can swallow this whole or attend to other, more meliorist perspectives—offered by Sarah Annes Brown and Catherine Silverstone in another timely collection of essays, Tragedy in Transition." (Times Literary Supplement, January 2009)

"Setting the agenda for further research of this type." (The Classical Review, 2009)

“These timely and compelling essays address a remarkable range of texts and topics from Sophocles and Shakespeare to Tarantino and Kane, most notably the trauma of indeterminate identity, of crossing boundaries and being caught in between times, so central to thinking about tragedy now.”
–Adrian Poole, University of Cambridge

'The subject of tragedy is at once intimidating and well-worn. All credit then to the editors for having commissioned a varied collection of essays that breaks fresh ground and makes unexpected connections. Contributors are not afraid to ask large questions, for example about the transcultural appeal of tragedy or its compatibility with the postmodern condition. There is an emphasis on enriching intertextualities and reception histories; on the light that different tragic traditions with their continuities and dissonances can cast on one another. The volume as a whole suggests some future directions our conversations about tragedy might profitably take."
–Charles Martindale, University of Bristol