The co-edited volume Fragmentation in Ancient Greek Drama adds an important tile to the (fragmented) mosaic that is the study of ancient Greek dramatic fragments. Not only do the editors, Anna Lamari, Franco Montanari and Anna Novokhatko, helpfully situate the volume within the expanding scholarship on fragments of Greek drama, but they also carefully chart the theoretical and historical framework of deeply charged terms such as ‘fragment’ and ‘fragmentation’. They insert these terms into a wider (postmodern and post-structuralist) framework that has made ample use of the ‘fragment’ as an existential label, as well as into the history of such terms within the discipline of Classics.

Questions of methodology are treated in part 1 of the volume, with various contributors offering an extensive overview of the state of the art with respect to tragic (Matthew Wright) and comic (Francesco Paolo Bianchi) fragments and the history of their transmission (Matthew Wright), as well as the methodological relevance of combining testimonia and fragments (Ralph M. Rosen, Francesco Paolo Bianchi, S. Douglas Olson). Attention is also given to the interplay between tragic and comic fragments within (Jeffrey Henderson) and outside of the dramatic genre, such as epic poetry (Bernhard Zimmermann); fragments are also put into dialogue with ancient scholarship, such as Aristotle’s Poetics (Oliver Taplin). Further considerations regarding the nature of, and differences between, various types of fragments, as well as the meaning and uses of fragmentation – both ancient and modern – aim at addressing the problems posed by the editors in their introduction (Lamari, Zimmermann).

Parts 2 and 3 discuss the utility of interlacing the study of fragments with that of whole plays, in terms of both content and structure (Massimo Giuseppetti, Anna Novokhatko, Ioannis M. Konstantakos). In some chapters, this interlacing relates to the order of the plays within a trilogy (Alan Sommerstein), or to the relationship between the treatment of a myth in a (selection of) fragment(s) and the retelling of the same story in other genres (Nikos Manousakis) and in the archaeological evidence (Anna Novokhatko). In other chapters, at the centre are the (fragmentary) linguistic and literary borrowings from other genres, such as epinician poetry (Ioanna Karamanou) and epic poetry (Michele Napolitano). Consideration is also given to the status and usefulness of additional studies on groups of fragments, such as the overlooked and neglected anonymous fragments of Greek tragedy, lying in wait for a commentary and translation (Patrick Finglass). Some chapters question the authorship of fragments (Martin Cropp) or even their genre (Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou), and the criteria employed to make such determinations. Others demonstrate how a closer look at fragments may in fact helpfully change our perspective on general and well-established assumptions about single textual readings (Andreas Bagordo), whole authors and generic categories (Serena Perrone), consolidated by means of critical editions and commentaries, ancient and modern. ‘Fragmented’ thematic tropes and their occurrence in fragments and whole plays receive attention in both parts, such as the theme of barbarism in tragedy and tragic fragments (Efstathia Papadodima) and that of ethnic differences and their linguistic trends in comedy and comic fragments (Massimiliano Ornaghi).

Parts 4 and 5 variously enlist and discuss important loci of quotations of Greek comic and tragic playwrights and their works and look at citational practices in antiquity. Some chapters present the relevance of tragic and comic quotations in the works of philosophers from various periods (Piero Totaro, Poulheria Kyriakou, Lucía Rodríguez-Noriega Guillén); others point to the importance of comedy’s quotations of tragedy. Paratragedy is presented as a fragmentary practice or, better, as contributing to a poetics of fragmentation that is at the centre of some extant comedies, such as Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae (Anton Bierl); vase paintings are also part of this poetics of fragmentation (Christian Orth). More generally, however, for comedy the major points of reference are Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae (Kostas Apostolakis) and Stobaeus’ Anthology (Benjamin W. Millis), a work that has often been overlooked.

Overall, the focus on quotations and citational practices in ancient authors, in addition to contributing to our knowledge of lost plays, also tells us about the increasing practice of fragmentation of Greek drama in antiquity, long before its physical deterioration into fragments, and highlights what this practice means for, and does to, the fragments themselves and their authors. Practices of decontextualization, for example, may be read as consciously construing a thematic trope as prevalent in order to serve the author’s needs (Athina Papachrysostomou), or proving a larger point by isolating single utterances (Poulheria Kyriakou). Citational habits also pinpoint recurrent reading practices, ancient and modern (Richard Hunter). An in-depth study in tragic and comic quotations and the context in which they are found helps us to identify cultural constructs, such as those around the style of an author (Patrick O’ Sullivan), and to deconstruct scholarly assumptions about theatre more generally that have derived from a misreading of the ancient context in which such quotations were presented and commented upon (Eric Csapo).

Overall, this is a rich and stimulating volume that proposes several new and exciting approaches to fragments and fragmentation in ancient Greek drama by putting such fragments into dialogue with the larger corpus and context of Greek drama and with other literary and non-literary genres across antiquity. Perhaps all the more because of the introduction’s quotation of Susan Sontag’s reflection on the importance of fragments and fragmentation in the artistic world (Jonathan Cott, Susan Sontag: The Complete Rolling Stone Interview (New Haven and London 2013)), one would have expected a follow-up section on the great and increasing number of contemporary engagements with ancient Greek fragments in the performing arts. But the volume is nevertheless an extremely valuable tool as it stands and, in addition to representing an important step forward in the study of fragments within the discipline of Classics, it will, Isuspect, prove useful for theatre practitioners too as they engage with these exciting and (mostly) unexplored ‘pieces’ of theatre.