Post-war British Drama: Looking Back in Gender: Looking back in gender

In this extensively revised and updated edition of Michelene Wandor’s classic work Look Back in Gender, Wandor takes another provocative look at a selection of key British plays from the last fifty years. Wandor scrutinises plays by, among others, Ayckbourn, Beckett, Churchill, Daniels, Friel, Hare, Osborne, Pinter, Ravenhill and Wesker. This lively polemic examines many issues including: The impact of femiinist and socialist politics throughout the drama of the period The representation of the family, sexuality and the mother in these plays The function of the gender dynamic in determining structural and narrative drive The crucial imperative of gender in the playwright’s imagination Wandor’s nuanced argument still situates gender at the heart of mainstream theatre and reaches some surprising conclusions about the politics of the personal as a powerful theatrical dynamic.