HEINZ KOSOK is Professor Emeritus of English and American Literature at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, and has previously held professorial appointments at the universities of Marburg and Stuttgart. He has acted as President of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures, as well as Chairman of the German Association of University Teachers of English. Among his many publications on English, American and Irish literature are O'Casey the Dramatist (1984) and Plays and Playwrights from Ireland in International Perspective (1995).