Cirrus@Austlit

' The essays collected here reflect some of my main concerns during the past ten years and belong to the sociology of the theatre as I have understood and developed it until now. The areas of my research that I have chosen for the purposes of this volume are productions, audiences and performers. These are essential components of the theatre which, while distinguishing it from literature, dramatic and otherwise, place the theatre firmly in the realm of what in French is exquisitely called les arts du spectacle, "performing arts" in English not quite capturing the precision of the French phrase. Even so, the term spectacle is not monosemantic and thus not crystal clear: it incorporates a wide range of shows (variety and circuses, for example, are spectacles) that leave the term and, with it, the very notion of art, open to debate.' (Publication abstract)

From the editors' introduction: Michael Wilding, the distinguished teacher, critic and writer, retired in 2000 from his Personal Chair in English and Australian Literature at the University of Sydney. Two of his former colleagues, David Brooks and Brian Kiernan, have put together this Festschrift as a mark of honour to his brilliant career.

A number of his colleagues and students have written about Michael's achievements as a scholar and critic in various fields, and many among them about his attendant interest in the politics of writing and criticism. These essays on a vast range of themes in English and Australian literatures (including the ones on Michael's own novels and short stories), some on European literature, and one on its interaction with Asian literature have been grouped together in broadly chronological sequence according to topic.

The last section of this volume has essays on Professor Wilding's parallel career as a creative writer, fiction by some of the contributors and a variety of memoirs.