In Germany, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the Netherlands dramaturgs and literary managers are a lynchpin of mainstream, state-funded theatre, and have been officially employed for well over two centuries. Playreaders, advisers on repertoire and textual, critical and practical experts working in partnerships with directors and/or writers are accepted as an integral part of theatre-making. Similarly, though the history is much more recent, advances in American theory and practice since the 1960s mean that dramaturgy and literary management are now embedded both in subsidised theatre and as recognised disciplines in academic curricula at over forty universities. The latest edition of Brockett's standard theatre history contains significant new sections on both fields, seeking to define differences while acknowledging that the concept of the dramaturg is still not widely understood. England is now belatedly following in the wake of continental and US practice, and its dramaturgical cultures have undergone an extraordinary transformation, particularly in the last decade – a pace of change still so great that it is difficult to keep abreast of developments. Though literary managers became official only in 1963 with the arrival of Tynan at the National Theatre, and professionalisation was at first slow, it quickened exponentially in the 1990s and the number of appointments continues to rise. Literary managers are now key figures in the artistic running of many theatres, and the deployment of dramaturgs, who in England most commonly develop new plays, has become widespread.