In the first part of this article, published in NTQ1. Susan Bassnett introduced the two papers from ltalian contributors to the Conference on Theatre Analysis held last year at the University of Warwick, where she herself teaches in the Department of Comparative Literature. Here, she concludes her brief introduction to the work of the new generation of continental theatre analysts by providing a context for the two further papers included in this issue, both products of the French approach to the problem of describing theatre in performance. Susan Bassnett's own study of the plays of Pirandello appeared in the Macmillan Modern Dramatists series in 1983.