Martin Puchner holds the H. Gordon Garbedian Chair in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of Stage Fright and Poetry of the Revolution, which was awarded the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize. He is also the co-editor of the Norton Anthology of Drama.

Winner of the Joe A. Callaway Prize for the Best Book on Drama or Theater, New York University Department of English

"The Drama of Ideas contains a tightly woven and persuasive argument for rescuing a Platonic tradition of interactions between two disciplines: theatre and philosophy. When this unique form of writing is examined within a theatrical context, as drama, a highly innovative form of writing emerges where abstract ideas, on the one hand, and the concreteness of character and scene, on the other, are viewed in a constantly emerging, dynamic and creative interaction with each other. Puchner has produced an ambitious and innovative project."-Freddie Rokem, author of Philosophers and Thespians: Thinking Performance

"Martin Puchner productively challenges a core assumption of Western theatre scholarship: that the theatrical and literary theatre tradition derives in large part from Aristotle; and also its corollary: that from Aristotle's rival, Plato, comes a continuing tradition of anti-theatrical prejudice. The Drama of Ideas offers important new insights into the theory and practice of not only modern drama, but modern philosophy as well."-Marvin Carlson, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

"The Drama of Ideas argues for a radical re-imagining of modern drama, through a revised understanding of Plato's influence in the modern world. This is a wide-ranging, provocative, smart and well-written book, which will be of great interest to modern drama scholars, philosophers and classicists alike."-Emily Wilson, University of Pennsylvania