The Norton Library Podcast

In Part 2 of our discussion on Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, editor Dora Zhang returns to discuss the original cover and the design of the Norton Library edition, her first encounter with Woolf's writing during college, and a few of her favorite moments in the text. Dora Zhang is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Strange Likeness: Description and the Modernist Novel (University of Chicago Press, 2020), which studies the works of Henry James, Marcel Proust, and, centrally, Virginia Woolf in order to reinvigorate our understanding of the ubiquitous but undertheorized category of novelistic description. Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Chronicle Review, and The Point.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of A Room of One's Own, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393893991. Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

Dora Zhang, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley and editor of the Norton Library A Room of One's Own, brings modernist expertise. She traces Woolf's literary upbringing, explores the argument that money and a private room enable creative work, and unpacks the spider's web metaphor, narrative blending of autobiography and history, and the invention of Judith Shakespeare.

In Part 2 of our discussion on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, editor Justine Murison returns to discuss the cover design of the Norton Library edition, her first encounter with The Scarlet Letter in high school (and the process of coming to understand the text as an adult), and the challenging irony of Hawthorne's narrative voice. Justine S. Murison is Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research and teaching examine nineteenth-century American literature with special attention to its relation to the intertwined histories of health and religion. She is the author of The Politics of Anxiety in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (2011) and Faith in Exposure: Privacy and Secularism in the Nineteenth-Century United States (2023).To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Scarlet Letter, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393871616.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

In Part 1 of our discussion on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, we welcome editor Justine Murison to discuss Hawthorne's life and views, the iconic symbolism in the text and how to analyze it, and the lasting relevance of The Scarlet Letter in the twenty-first century. Justine S. Murison is Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research and teaching examine nineteenth-century American literature with special attention to its relation to the intertwined histories of health and religion. She is the author of The Politics of Anxiety in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (2011) and Faith in Exposure: Privacy and Secularism in the Nineteenth-Century United States (2023).To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Scarlet Letter, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393871616.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

In Part 2 of our discussion on Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, editor Dennis Washburn returns to discuss the importance of the colors of the Norton Library edition, the ways the text spoke to him during his translation process, and the self-evaluation that occurs through reading something unfamiliar. (P. S. Hi, Shonda Rhimes! Please, please, please work your magic with an adaptation ofThe Tale of Genji!) Dennis Washburn is the Burlington northern Foundation professor of Asian studies at Dartmouth College. He holds a Ph.D. in Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University and has authored and edited studies on a range of literary and cultural topics. These include: The Dilemma of the Modern in Japanese Fiction; Translating Mount Fuji: Modern Japanese Fiction and the Ethics of Identity; and The Affect of Difference: Representations of Race in East Asian Empire. In addition to his scholarly publications, he has translated several works of Japanese fiction, including Yokomitsu Riichi’s Shanghai, Tsushima Tsushima Tuko’s Laughing Wolf, and Mizukami Tsutomu’s The Temple of the Wild Geese, for which he was awarded the US-Japan Friendship Commission Prize. In 2004 he was awarded the Japan Foreign Minister’s citation for promoting cross-cultural understanding.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Tale of Genji, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393427912.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

In Part 1 of our discussion on Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, we welcome editor Dennis Washburn to discuss the life and times of Murasaki Shikibu, the process of abridging The Tale of Genji for the Norton Library edition, and the novel's celebration and satire of courtly life. Dennis Washburn is the Burlington northern Foundation professor of Asian studies at Dartmouth College. He holds a Ph.D. in Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University and has authored and edited studies on a range of literary and cultural topics. These include: The Dilemma of the Modern in Japanese Fiction; Translating Mount Fuji: Modern Japanese Fiction and the Ethics of Identity; and The Affect of Difference: Representations of Race in East Asian Empire. In addition to his scholarly publications, he has translated several works of Japanese fiction, including Yokomitsu Riichi’s Shanghai, Tsushima Tsushima Tuko’s Laughing Wolf, and Mizukami Tsutomu’s The Temple of the Wild Geese, for which he was awarded the US-Japan Friendship Commission Prize. In 2004 he was awarded the Japan Foreign Minister’s citation for promoting cross-cultural understanding.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Tale of Genji, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393427912. Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

For our special celebration of Jane Austen's 250th birthday, we welcome editors Jenny Davidson (Pride and Prejudice, 2023), Stephanie Insley Hershinow (Sense and Sensibility, 2024; Emma, 2022), and Patricia Matthew (Mansfield Park, 2026). In this extended roundtable episode, the editors discuss their personal favorites among Austen's books (and where to start as an Austen beginner), the differences between modern adaptations and Austen's original writing, and Austen's enduring legacy in the twenty-first century. Jenny Davidson is Professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. She has published four books of literary criticism, four novels, several other editions, and numerous articles and essays. She is currently at work on two book projects: a handbook on career pathways for humanities doctoral students and an intellectually wide-ranging and highly personal account of what it means to read Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (originally published between 1776 and 1789) from the vantage point of the twenty-first century.Stephanie Insley Hershinow is an associate professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY, where she specializes in novel theory and eighteenth-century culture. She is the author of Born Yesterday: Inexperience and the Early Realist Novel. She lives with her family in Jersey City, New Jersey.Patricia A. Matthew is Associate Professor of English at Montclair State Unviersity. She has been published widely and is the editor of Written/Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure (2016). She is the co-editor of the Oxford University Press series Race in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture. To learn more or purchase copies of the Norton Library editions of Jane Austen's books, go to https://wwnorton.com/. Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

In Part 2 of our discussion on John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, co-editor Peter Singer returns to discuss the cover design of the Norton Library edition, the formation of an argument about a philosophical thought, and a soundtrack for the book (spoiler: John Lennon's "Imagine" is involved). Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher, is currently Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He is best known for Animal Liberation, first published in 1975 and widely considered to be the founding statement of the animal rights movement; and for The Life You Can Save, which led him to found the charity of the same name. His other books include Practical Ethics, The Most Good You Can Do, and the two books co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari- Radek. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People. To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of Utilitarianism, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393441161.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton and a key figure in moral philosophy, dives deep into John Stuart Mill's influential Utilitarianism. He discusses Mill's background, mental crises, and reform ambitions. Singer explains Mill's nuanced definition of happiness and critiques surrounding utilitarianism, including justice and punishment. He highlights Mill's legacy in contemporary philosophy and how his ideas on higher vs. lower pleasures and social reforms resonate in modern discussions of ethics.

In Part 2 of our discussion on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, editor Wayne A. Rebhorn returns to discuss his first encounter with Boccaccio, the nature of translating the text's layered meanings from Italian to English, and modern film adaptations of The Decameron. Wayne A. Rebhorn is the Celanese Centennial Professor of English at the University of Texas, where he teaches English, Italian, and comparative literature. His translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron won the 2014 PEN Center USA’s Literary Award for Translation.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Decameron, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393427882.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.