The global rise of modern drama in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries needs to be understood in relation to ideologies of the nation-state, war, histories of colonial rule, and the oppression of women. The emergence of modern drama, known as "spoken drama" in many Asian contexts, has largely been driven by engagement with discourses of Western liberalism and realist aesthetics. Canons of modern drama in Europe and the USA were not just upheld as representative of the nation and as exemplars of cultural excellence, they were also upheld as dominant colonial models (Luckhurst 2006). The rhetoric supporting Western dramatic canons tended to erase or deny influences from other world literatures and theaters. Thus, for much of the twentieth century, European-and American-received histories of modern drama were mostly white, self-referential, and exoticized or marginalized innovative playwrights and experiments from elsewhere. In the 1960s these patterns began to shift and in the twenty-first century the pace of change has accelerated markedly. Histories and readers in world theater have proliferated and the influence of Asian theater, especially Japanese theater, is beginning to be acknowledged (Salz 2016). In particular, there are concerted efforts to raise the visibility of work by playwrights of color and by women (Jones and Elam 2013). African American playwrights Lynn Nottage, Anna Deavere Smith, and Suzan-Lori Parks enjoy significant mainstream productions and are held in high esteem (Kolin 2007; Young 2012), their work looking to Africa, not to Europe, for its inspiration and impetus. Griselda Gambaro is revered as Argentina's most accomplished dramatist on the subject of her country's traumatic history. Caryl Churchill's work in A Companion to World Literature. Edited by Ken Seigneurie.