This timely book takes a radical and innovative look at Creative Writing, the academy's newest success story

Michelene Wandor has written the first history of Creative Writing, analysing its relationship with English, literary studies and cultural theory, and theorising its pedagogy. Erudite and provocative, the book presents a searching critique of Creative Writing's aims, its position in higher education, and the methodology of the workshop format in which it is conventionally taught.

Written with wit, intelligence and authority, "The Author is not Dead, Merely Somewhere Else "argues for a radical reconception of the subject, suggesting inspiring strategies for change.

The book is indispensable reading for teachers and students, as well as all those concerned with the future of literature.

`one hell of a seminal read ... Here is a book that grapples, with energy, ingenuity and terrific intellectual rigour, with a bewildering forest of issues around gender and politics ... illuminating, insightful, perceptive.' - Women's Review

In this extensively revised and updated edition of her classic work, Look Back in Gender, Michelene Wandor confirms the symbiotic relationship between drama and gender in a provocative look at key, representative British plays from the last fifty years.
Repositioning the text at the heart of theatre studies, Wandor surveys plays by Ayckbourn, Beckett, Churchill, Daniels, Friel, Hare, Kane, Osborne, Pinter, Ravenhill, Wertenbaker, Wesker and others. Her nuanced argument, central to any analysis of contemporary drama, discusses:
*the imperative of gender in the playwright's imagination
* *the function of gender as a major determinant of the text's structural and narrative drives
*the impact of socialism and feminisim on post-war British drama, and the relevance of feminist dynamics in drama
*differences in the representation of the fmaily, sexuality and the mother, before and after 1968
*the impact of the slogan that the 'personal is political' on contemporary form and content.

In this extensively revised and updated edition of her classic work, Look Back in Gender, Michelene Wandor confirms the symbiotic relationship between drama and gender in a provocative look at key, representative British plays from the last fifty years.
Repositioning the text at the heart of hteatre studies, Wandor surveys plays by Ayckbourn, Beckett, Churchill, Daniels, Friel, Hare, Kane, Osborne, Pinter, Ravenhill, Wertenbaker, Wesker and others. Her nuanced argument, central to any analysis of contemporary drama, discusses:
*the imperative of gender in the playwright's imagination
*the function of gender as a major determinant of the text's structural and narrative drives
*the impact of socialism and feminism on post-war British drama, and the relevance of feminist dynamics in drama
*differences in the representation of the fmaily, sexuality and the mother, before and after 1968
*the impact of the slogan that the 'personal is political' on contemporary form and content.

In this challenging book, first published in 1987, Michelene Wandor looks at the best-known plays in the thirty years prior to publication; from Look Back in Anger onwards. Wandor investigates the representation of the family and different forms of sexuality in these plays and re-reviews them from a perspective that throws into sharp relief the function of gender as an important determinant of plot, setting and the portrayal of character. Juxtaposing the period before 1968, when statutory censorship was still in force, with the years following its abolition, Wandor scrutinises the key plays of, among others, Osborne, Pinter, Wesker, Arden, and Delaney. Each one is analysed in terms of its social context: the influence of World War II, the testing of gender roles, the development of the Welfare State and changes in family patterns, and the impact of feminist, Left-wing and gay politics. Throughout the period, two generations of playwrights and theatregoers transformed the theatre into a forum in which they could articulate and explore the interaction of their interpersonal relationships with the wider political sphere. These changes are explored in this title, which will allow readers to re-evaluate their view of post-war British drama.

one hell of a seminal read ... Here is a book that grapples, with energy, ingenuity and terrific intellectual rigour, with a bewildering forest of issues around gender and politics ... illuminating, insightful, perceptive.' - Women's Review

In this challenging book, first published in 1987, Michelene Wandor looks at the best-known plays in the thirty years prior to publication, from "Look Back in Anger" onwards. Wandor investigates the representation of the family and different forms of sexuality in these plays and re-reviews them from a perspective that throws into sharp relief the function of gender as an important determinant of plot, setting and the portrayal of character. Juxtaposing the period before 1968, when statutory censorship was still in force, with the years following its abolition, Wandor scrutinises the key plays of, among others, Osborne, Pinter, Wesker, Arden, and Delaney. Each one is analysed in terms of its social context: the influence of World War II, the testing of gender roles, the development of the Welfare State and changes in family patterns, and the impact of feminist, Left-wing and gay politics.
Throughout the period, two generations of playwrights and theatregoers transformed the theatre into a forum in which they could articulate and explore the interaction of their interpersonal relationships with the wider political sphere. These changes are explored in this title, which will allow readers to re-evaluate their view of post-war British drama.

Michelene Wandor's new poetry collection travels in many directions. There is geography: Italy, Palestine, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, France, Egypt, the Lebanon, and, of course, the UK. Embarked personnel include Gertrude Bell, T.E. Lawrence, Marlon Brando, Isabella d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, George Bernard Shaw and the Gonzagas. Thematically, the poems alight at Greek mythology, gender, the evergreens of love, anguish, power and tragedy. The first and final touchpoints lie in the language itself, which is both guide and sustenance. Lyrical and narrative, startlingly evocative, elisions and connections, thrilling, satisfying and demanding, the words and poetic shapes travel down and across pages and spaces. The travel metaphor is only a beginning. Original and exciting, this collection resonates in mind and memory.

Critical-Creative Writing: Two Sides of the Same Coin is a Reader which bridges the gap between Creative Writing (CW) how-to handbooks, and anthologies of Literary and Cultural Theory.

The Art of Writing Drama is an indispensable textbook for wherever writing for the stage is taught, but also serves as a foundational book for any student taking courses in performance media - radio, television and film. Coupling theory with practice, the book opens with a survey of the current methodologies of teaching playwriting and of textual analysis. The theories of Bakhtin, Foucault and Derrida are examined as are the agendas of play reviewers from the national press. In the second section of the book, a wealth of guidance with practical exercises on the skills of writing for the stage is provided. Throughout the text, Wandor draws on her extensive experience as both playwright and teacher of creative writing to provide a guide that is both a scholarly and an immensely practical guide to writing for the theatre.

This timely book takes a radical and innovative look at Creative Writing, the academy's newest success story

Michelene Wandor has written the first history of Creative Writing, analysing its relationship with English, literary studies and cultural theory, and theorising its pedagogy. Erudite and provocative, the book presents a searching critique of Creative Writing's aims, its position in higher education, and the methodology of the workshop format in which it is conventionally taught.

Written with wit, intelligence and authority, "The Author is not Dead, Merely Somewhere Else "argues for a radical reconception of the subject, suggesting inspiring strategies for change.

The book is indispensable reading for teachers and students, as well as all those concerned with the future of literature.