The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Women Playwrights

This Companion, first published in 2000, addresses the work of women playwrights in Britain throughout the twentieth century.

Elaine Aston (Edited by), Janelle Reinelt (Edited by)

9780521594226, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 May 2000

298 pages, 9 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.61 kg

'The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Women Playwrights is an excellent companion. The Companion provides detailed and extensive information that is scrupulously well researched and well presented. It thus makes an indispensable, timely, and provocative resource.' Modern Drama

This Companion, first published in 2000, addresses the work of women playwrights in Britain throughout the twentieth century. The chapters explore the historical and theatrical contexts in which women have written for the theatre and examine the work of individual playwrights. A chronological section on playwriting from the 1920s to the 1970s is followed by chapters which raise issues of nationality and identity. Later sections question accepted notions of the canon and include chapters on non-mainstream writing, including black and lesbian performance. Each section is introduced by the editors, who provide a narrative overview of a century of women's drama and a thorough chronology of playwriting, set in political context. The collection includes essays on the individual writers Caryl Churchill, Sarah Daniels, Pam Gems and Timberlake Wertenbaker as well as extensive documentation of contemporary playwriting in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including figures such as Liz Lochhead and Anne Devlin.

Notes on contributors
Chronology
1. A century in view: from suffrage to the 1990s Elaine Aston and Janelle Reinelt
2. Women playwrights of the 1920s and 1930s Maggie B. Gale
3. New plays and women's voices in the 1950s Susan Bennett
4. Women playwrights and the challenge of feminism in the 1970s Michelene Wandor
5. The politics of location Susan Bassnett
6. Contemporary Welsh women playwrights Anna-Marie Taylor
7. Contemporary Scottish women playwrights Adrienne Scullion
8. Women playwrights in Northern Ireland Mary Trotter
9. Language and identity in Timberlake Wertenbaker's plays Susan Carlson
10. Pam Gems: body politics and biography Elaine Aston
11. Caryl Churchill and the politics of style Janelle Reinelt
12. Violence, abuse and gender relations in the plays by Sarah Daniels Gabriele Griffin
13. Small island people: black British women playwrights Meenakshi Ponnuswami
14. Writing outside the mainstream Claire MacDonald
15. Lesbian performance Sue-Ellen Case.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG]