DOCSLIB.ORG

A Study of the Protagonists in Three Plays by Henrik Ibsen---"The Master Builder", "John Gabriel Borkman", and "When We Dead Awaken"

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Study of the Protagonists in Three Plays by Henrik Ibsen--- W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1973 What Price Greatness: A Study of the Protagonists in Three Plays by Henrik Ibsen---"The Master Builder", "John Gabriel Borkman", and "When We Dead Awaken" Janet Rose Fuchs College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Scandinavian Studies Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Fuchs, Janet Rose, "What Price Greatness: A Study of the Protagonists in Three Plays by Henrik Ibsen--- "The Master Builder", "John Gabriel Borkman", and "When We Dead Awaken"" (1973). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539624815. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-7wrb-5n62 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHAT PRICE GREATNESS? : A STUDY OF THE PROTAGONISTS IN *» THREE PLAYS BY HENRIK IBSEN—THE MASTER BUILDER, JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN, AND WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN A T hesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Janet R0 Fuchs ProQuest Number: 10625271 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10625271 Published by ProQuest LLC (2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition© ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 - 1346 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Author Approved, May 1973 Louis E0 Catron I- P-u*+<- Jenneth/Peirce i i " • 1 - t - ' j - ABSTRACT This paper approaches three of Ibsen's last protagonists-- Halvard Solness in The Master Builder, John Gabriel Borkman in John Gabriel Borkman, and Arnold Rubek in When We Dead Awaken-- as studies in the "paradox of greatness." These men were all doomed by the very "greatness" that raised them above other men because in so doing it confronted them with questions of personal responsibility that were unanswerable and moral choices that were ultimately paradoxical. Their personal histories point to failure, although, ironi­ cally, they all sacrificed love and ordinary "happiness" to achieve the special kind of success (in terms of self-fulfillment or realiza­ tion of their special talents) they felt could and should be theirs. In other words, their sense of mission seemed to demand of them a withdrawal from love and a denial of commitment to others, yet it was this loss of humanity that kept them from fulfilling themselves and their missions. Part of the burden of this paper must be to assess Ibsen's judgment of these men. Although their failure and suffering--as well as the suffering they caused others—can, indeed, be traced to decisions made much earlier in their lives, Ibsen cannot condemn any more than he can condone the choices they made. He finds them unpardonably guilty of having killed love in others, but he will not say that they were wrong to sacrifice as they did, believing in their own nobility of purpose. He has no answer to the paradoxical problem of greatness; he can only suggest that greatness has its p ric e o Before examining the three plays in turn, this paper sets down some preliminaries that are essential to a clear and meaning­ ful presentation of the thesis. First, a brief background of the changing critical approaches to Ibsen will help the reader place this study within the framework of Ibsen criticism and to see that the emphasis here falls on the moral dimension in Ibsen’s work (and what, exactly, that is taken to mean). Second, it is important to define, as best we can, terms such as "greatness," "duty," and "responsibility." Third, the exclusion of Little Eyolf from this study (although that play appeared between The Master Builder and John Gabriel Borkman) must be fully explained. There follow separate considerations of the protagonists in the plays: three portraits of greatness, flawed, and of suffering. These discussions all lead to the conclusion that while Ibsen may not always admire Solness, Borkman, or Rubek, he does remain sympathetic to them in their struggle as exceptional men, and he does imply that the price of greatness may be worth paying. i i i WHAT PRICE GREATNESS? : A STUDY OF THE PROTAGONISTS IN THREE PLAYS BY HENRIK IBSEN—THE MASTER BUILDER, JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN., AND WHEN WE. DEAD AWAKEN Through the histories of the protagonists in The Master Builder (1892), John Gabriel Borkman (1896), and When We Dead Awaken (1899), Ibsen explores problems of moral choice and questions of personal responsibility that confront the exceptional individual. In all three cases, he finds that the questions of responsibility can never be fully or adequately answered and the problems of moral decision are ultimately paradoxical. The purpose of the present study is to examine this paradox--which we will call the "paradox of greatness"—as it is presented and developed in the three plays under consideration. Since so much has been written about Ibsen, a brief account first of the changing perspectives on his work will enable the reader to see this approach in relation to the vast body of Ibsen c r itic is m . The nature of Henrik Ibsen’s literary reputation has shifted considerably since his death in 1906. In his own day, Ibsen was regarded as an iconoclast and an unrelenting social reformer.^ The appearance of plays such as A D oll’s House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, and The Wild Duck brought great excitement and praise from the Ibsenites, who saw in them mainly a challenge to "the sanctity of marriage, the omniscience of the church, the efficacy of idealism, the probity of constituted authority, the wisdom of the ’compact 2 majority.’" His eminent supporters in the last century, the ' k'.: . 2 intellectuals George Bernard Shaw and Georg Brandes, saw Ibsen in 3 the role of preacher: Shaw examined the "lessons” of the plays; Brandes emphasized the essentially polemical quality of Ibsen’s work.^ Although Ibsen himself had said in a now famous speech before the Norwegian Women’s Rights League in May, 1898, "I have been more of a poet and less of a social philosopher than people generally seem inclined to believe,""* it was not until twentieth-century Ibsen study was well under way that this statement was taken seriously. In 1928, Halvdan Koht wrote in his biography of Ibsen that "too many have attempted to make him a thinker or a philosopher, a social 6 critic or a social reformer." Subsequent criticism began to turn away from the search for social and moral instruction in Ibsen's plays. Part of this shift was, no doubt, due to the continuing popularity of Ibsen’s plays long after the social dogmas he attacked in nineteenth-century Europe had ceased to exist as such. Critics were forced to account for the survival of Ibsen's plays by looking beyond his insights into social and political questions. This re­ valuation of Ibsen’s contribution to the drama took two basic forms: on the one hand, appreciation of his technique as a journeyman drama- 7 g tist; on the other hand, recognition of Ibsen as a poet, regardless of whether he was writing in verse or in prose„ These approaches to Ibsen’s plays have done much to free him from the role of scourge of nineteenth-century European society and to reinstate him at an artistic level. As James Finn suggested in his 9 f 10 review of Koht s Life of Ibsen and Meyer s Ibsen: We now smile condescendingly at the fatuous idea that Ghosts is about syphilis, that notion being sufficient for the less so­ phisticated of our forebears; but .such views are a long time dying. There are still people who wish to treat A Doll1s House and Hedda Gabler as if Ibsen were an early enlistment in Women's Lib. There is nothing Ibsen would have scorned more, as his verdict on contemporaries who were so tempted makes clejj, and nothing less justified by the progression of his plays* Indeed, the view of Ibsen as social commentator on such matters as the role of women, the position of the church, and prevalent a tti­ tudes toward sex is now generally rejected as short-sighted and superficial. But this should not mean the rejection of the essen- 12 tially moral concern that pervades his work. I would agree with T. F. Driver's premise for his study of Ibsen: One may err in finding only the propagandist in Ibsen. One may err in judging him only by the realistic plays of the middle period, for which he has become most famous, and by seeing these as "problem" plays. Yet even when one has adjusted his sights and looked at the whole of Ibsen's life and work, he will find that the element of poetic acceptance in Ibsen-is everywhere overshadowed by the factor of moral judgment.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • I Will Begin My Talk Today by Considering Some of the Ways in Which Ibsen Is Not Classifiable As a Decadent Author
    ROMANTIC REMAINS: IBSEN’S DECADENCE, WITH AND AGAINST GEORG LUKÁCS Olivia Noble Gunn This article emerges from two big questions: Who is Ibsen for the Hungarian Marxist critic Georg Lukács? and How does Ibsen fit into Lukács’s understanding of the history of western bourgeois literature? At stake in looking for answers to these questions is a more comparative (and less idealized) understanding of what makes Ibsen’s dramas modern or proto-modernist – or, most aptly in the case of his late works, neo-romantic. Of course, many scholars have insisted on versions of Ibsen’s romanticism. For example, in ‘Ibsen the Romantic’: Analogues of Paradise in the Later Plays, Errol Durbach explores both Ibsen’s romanticism and his counter-romanticism: “the paradoxical simultaneity of Romantic and counter-romantic attitudes which makes Ibsen a Romantic of extraordinary individuality, both celebrant and critic of a vision potentially redemptive and potentially ruinous” (Durbach, 1982, 6). Unlike Durbach, Lukács locates Ibsen decisively as a counter-progressive writer of the “era of decay.” I am interested in Lukács’s readings of Ibsen, precisely because he insists on this counter- progressive (and thus anti- or failed realist) current in Ibsen. I would argue that Ibsen turns or returns to the strange and extraordinary, the fantastic, and the subjective in his neo-romantic period, but does so in a mode of radical skepticism that both rejects the supposed progress of 19th century realism – that is, its claims to have moved beyond the romantic moment – and looks askance at the 20th century, predicting a repetition of idealization as degradation.
    [Show full text]
  • Helle 2016 Polve
    Poljarnyj vestnik: Norwegian Journal of Slavic Studies, vol. 19, 2016, pp. 1–14 Ibsen in Russia Revisited: The Ibsenian Legacy in the Symbolist World of Andrei Belyi Lillian Jorunn Helle The intellectual atmosphere of Russian fin de siècle was characterized by a strong fascination for Norway, its nature, its culture and its literature. A good example is the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen who was a significant source of inspiration for Russian dramatists, writers and poets.1 The Russian symbolists in particular recognized him as a tutelary spirit and especially the “younger” symbolists, the so-called second generation of Symbolism, regarded his works and thoughts as a prefiguration of their own. Typically, the second generation developed their own interpretation of Ibsen which differed significantly from the dominant contemporary European attitude to his dramas: In the West, at the beginning of the last century, there was a tendency to underline the pessimistic, resigned sides of Ibsen.2 The younger Russian symbolists however, read him in another light, as a fighter and rebel calling for ground-breaking renewals, although perceived in esoteric, spiritual terms (cf. Nilsson 1958, 194ff). This specific reading of Ibsen corresponded to and intensified their own dynamic attitude. In opposition to the older symbolists with their “l’art pour l’art”-programs, the task of the younger symbolists’ was a much more ambitious one; their strategies were to bring forth a new world, make life into art and art into life. As the poet Marina Tsvetaeva once contended, [с]имволизм меньше всего литературное течение (1994, 258),3 epitomizing that this movement was not merely an aesthetical revival, but first and foremost a Weltanschauung and a life building project (жизне- творчество).4 In this respect it was conceived as a unique possibility to overcome the cultural anxiety of the age and to realize the leap into a reconstructed reality, an 1 For a general study of the influence of Ibsen in Russia, see Shaikevich (1974).
    [Show full text]
  • A Doll's House Is a Manifesto of Universal Feminism
    IRWLE VOL. 11 No. I January 2015 1 Re-interpreting A Doll’s House through Post-modernist Feminist Projections Md. Amir Hossain For long centuries, women in the traditional social order and system have always been considered subservient to men. In patriarchal Bourgeois society, the matriarchal community has been "humiliated", "afflicted", "silenced" and "tortured" socially, politically, culturally and economically. With the post-modernizing age, women began to see the universe with their own eyes and not through the male gaze. In this paper, I want to focus on the powerful woman character, Nora Helmer as impacted on Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Through this adventurous and revolutionary woman, my purpose is to reach the feministic message out to the post-modern generations. It aims to depict and examine critically feministic issues through portraying Nora Helmer who is the representative of not only the 19th century Scandinavian Bourgeois order and custom but also the universal feminism. She has raised a fiery voice or initiated a dreadful revolution against the traditional customs and gender discrimination with a view to equalizing human rights. In the play, the dramatist has prioritized the female domination and power more than the male pelf and rule. The aim of the playwright is to emphasize upon the female power with a view to repressing the male domination and tradition. Actually, the purpose of my paper is to focus on the feminist message as articulated in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Considering the femme fatale character of Ibsen, the most renowned and powerful playwright, also known as the father figure of the post-modern era writing in Norwegian language, especially the powerful and domineering female protagonist cum heroine, Nora Helmer.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Warwick Institutional Repository: a Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Phd at The
    University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/36168 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Critical and Popular Reaction to Ibsen in England: 1872-1906 by Tracy Cecile Davis Thesis supervisors: Dr. Richard Beacham Prof. Michael R. Booth Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Warwick, Department of Theatre Studies. August, 1984. ABSTRACT This study of Ibsen in England is divided into three sections. The first section chronicles Ibsen-related events between 1872, when his work was first introduced to a Briton, and 1888, when growing interest in the 'higher drama' culminated in a truly popular edition of three of Ibsen's plays. During these early years, knowledge about and appreciation of Ibsen's work was limited to a fairly small number of intellectuals and critics. A matinee performance in 1880 attracted praise, but successive productions were bowdlerized adaptations. Until 1889, when the British professional premiere of A Doll's House set all of London talking, the lack of interest among actors and producers placed the responsibility for eliciting interest in Ibsen on translators, lecturers, and essayists. The controversy initiated by A Doll's House was intensified in 1891, the so-called Ibsen Year, when six productions, numerous new translations, debates, lectures, published and acted parodies, and countless articles considered the value and desirability of Ibsen's startling modern plays.
    [Show full text]
  • Ibsen's New Drama
    Ibsen's New Drama Fortnightly Review 1st April, 1900 JAMES A. JOYCE Twenty years have passed since Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll's House, thereby almost marking an epoch in the history of drama. During those years his name has gone abroad through the length and breadth of two continents, and has provoked more discussion and criticism than that of any other living man. He has been upheld as a religious reformer, a social reformer, a Semitic lover of righteousness, and as a great dramatist. He has been rigorously denounced as a meddlesome intruder, a defective artist, an incomprehensible mystic, and, in the eloquent words of a certain English critic, 'a muck-ferreting dog'. Through the perplexities of such diverse criticism, the great genius of the man is day by day coming out as a hero comes out amid the earthly trials. The dissonant cries are fainter and more distant, the random praises are rising in steadier and more choral chaunt. Even to the uninterested bystander it must seem significant that the interest attached to this Norwegian has never flagged for over a quarter of a century. It may be questioned whether any man has held so firm an empire over the thinking world in modern times. Not Rousseau; not Emerson; not Carlyle; not any of those giants of whom almost all have passed out of human ken. Ibsen's power over two generations has been enhanced by his own reticence. Seldom, if at all, has he condescended to join battle with his enemies. It would appear as if the storm of fierce debate rarely broke in upon his wonderful calm.
    [Show full text]
  • Henrik Ibsen and Isadora Duncan” Author: India Russell Source: Temenos Academy Review 17 (2014) Pp
    THE TEMENOS ACADEMY “Expressing the Inexpressible: Henrik Ibsen and Isadora Duncan” Author: India Russell Source: Temenos Academy Review 17 (2014) pp. 148-177 Published by The Temenos Academy Copyright © The Estate of India Russell, 2014 The Temenos Academy is a Registered Charity in the United Kingdom www.temenosacademy.org 148-177 Russell Ibsen Duncan.qxp_Layout 1 04/10/2014 13:32 Page 148 Expressing the Inexpressible: Henrik Ibsen and Isadora Duncan * India Russell he two seemingly opposing forces of Isadora Duncan and Henrik TIbsen were complementary both in their spirit and in their epic effect upon the world of dance and drama, and indeed upon society in general. From the North and from the West, Ibsen and Isadora flashed into being like two unknown comets hurtling across the heavens, creat - ing chaos and upheaval as they lit up the dark spaces of the world and, passing beyond our ken, leaving behind a glimmering trail of profound change, as well as misunderstanding and misinterpretation. I would like to show how these two apparently alien forces were driven by the same rhythmical and spiritual dynamics, ‘towards the Joy and the Light that are our final goal’. That a girl of nineteen, with no credentials, no institutional backing and no money should challenge the artistic establishment of wealthy 1890s San Francisco with the declaration of her belief in Truth and Beauty, telling a theatre director that she had discovered the danc e— ‘the art which has been lost for two thousand years’; and that, twenty years earlier, a young man, far away from the centres of culture in hide-bound nineteenth -century Norway, should challenge the beliefs and double standards of contemporary society, showing with his revolutionary plays a way out of the mire of lies and deception up into the light of Truth, is as astounding as the dramatic realisation of their ideals.
    [Show full text]
  • IBSEN News and Comment the Journal of the Ibsen Society of America Vol
    IBSEN News and Comment The Journal of The Ibsen Society of America Vol. 28 (2008) Phoenix Theatre, New York, An Enemy of the People, page 12 Gerry Goodstein IBSEN ON STAGE, 2008 From the Midwest: Two Minnesota Peer Gynt’s: Jim Briggs 2 From Dublin: The Gate’s Hedda Gabler: Irina Ruppo Malone 6 From New York: the Irish Rep’s Master Builder and the Phoenix’s Enemy: Marvin Carlson 10 From Stockholm: the Stadsteater’s Wild Duck: Mark Sandberg 14 NEWS AND NOTICES Ibseniana: The Rats’ Peer Gynt 16 ISA at SASS, 2009; Amazon’s Ibsen Collection, the Commonweal Ibsen Festival 17 IBSEN IN PRINT Annual Survey of Articles 18 Book Review: Thomas Van Laan on Helge Rønning’s Den Umulige Friheten. Henrik Ibsen og 43 Moderniteten (The Impossible Freedom. Henrik Ibsen and Modernity) The Ibsen Society of America Department of English, Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York 11201 www.ibsensociety.liu.edu Established in 1978 Rolf Fjelde, Founder is a production of The Ibsen Society of America and is sponsored by support from Long Island University, Brooklyn. Distributed free of charge to members of the So- ciety. Information on membership in the Society and on library rates for Ibsen News and Comment is available on the Ibsen Society web site: www.ibsensociety.liu.edu ©2008 by the Ibsen Society of America. ISSN-6171. All rights reserved. Editor, Joan Templeton Editor’s Note: We try to cover important U.S. productions of Ibsen’s plays as well as significant foreign pro- ductions. Members are encouraged to volunteer; please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in reviewing a particular production.
    [Show full text]
  • Henrik Ibsen's a Doll's House As a Feminist Play
    International Journal For Research In Educational Studies ISSN: 2208-2115 HENRIK IBSEN’S A DOLL’S HOUSE AS A FEMINIST PLAY Rajpal Kaur Assistant Professor, Department of English, Guru Nanak College, Budhlada (Mansa), Punjab, India E-Mail ID – [email protected] Mobile No. 9464662673 Postal Address: Rajpal Kaur w/o Darshan Singh, V.P.O.- Dhalewan, Tehsil & District- Mansa (Punjab), India – 151502. Abstract: Henrik Ibsen was a prominent poet and dramatist of nineteenth century. He wrote many plays for the social cause. A Doll’s House is also one of his influential plays, in which he raised a voice in favour of women. He sought equality for men and women, which he subsequently presented in this play through the character of Nora Helmer. The paper aims to analyse the play on feminist grounds. In this play, Nora seeks individuality and autonomous selfhood, which she acquires on terms of breaking the shackles of gender roles of mother and wife. Key Words: A Doll’s House; Feminist; Gender roles; Henrik Ibsen; Individuality. Volume-2 | Issue-4 | April,2017 | Paper-1 1 International Journal For Research In Educational Studies ISSN: 2208-2115 HENRIK IBSEN’S A DOLL’S HOUSE AS A FEMINIST PLAY Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828-1906), a significant Norwegian poet and dramatist, is known as the most influential man of the theatre in the nineteenth century. He has been a source of great influence for many playwrights of the nineteenth as well as twentieth century. His influence on George Bernard Shaw is especially notable. It was the social drama or the drama of ideas which he particularly propagated.
    [Show full text]
  • Henrik Ibsen's Master Builder and Thomas Mann's Death 1N Venice
    DAVID BRONSEN THE ARTIST AGAINST HIMSELF: HENRIK IBSEN'S MASTER BUILDER AND THOMAS MANN'S DEATH 1N VENICE When Henrik Ibsen's drama The Master Builder was publish- ed in 1892, almost simultaneously with its English, French and German translations, it was welcomed by the critics with close to universal acclaim as a work of great literary merit. Despite its positive reception, however, it was greeted with widespread bafflement regarding its meaning. In the words of a contem- porary, "'While one person sees Solness as Ibsen himself, another sees him as Bjornson, a third as a symbol of the right- wing party, a fourth as a symbol of the left and its leader, a fifth sees Solness as a symbol of Man rising in rebellion against God; a sixth sees the play as a conflict between youth and the older generation.' Some sought to identify Solness with Bismarck, while the Saturday Review in London decided that he was meant as a portrait of Mr. Gladstone, and that the play was full of references to the Irish question. ''1 It is significant, in view of this general lack of comprehension, that Thomas Mann, who first read the play a year after its publi- cation at eighteen years of age, immediately grasped its meaning and wrote a critique of it in which he described Solness' fate as a statement of the failure of aestheticism as an exclusive orienta- tion to life. ~ Two decades later, in 1912, Thomas Mann publish- ed his novella, Death in Venice, a major work dealing with a similar theme.
    [Show full text]
  • Henrik Ibsen ­ Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Henrik Ibsen from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    7/28/2015 Henrik Ibsen ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Henrik Ibsen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Henrik Johan Ibsen (/ˈɪbsәn/;[1] Norwegian: [ˈhɛnɾɪk ˈɪpsәn]; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a major Henrik Ibsen 19th­century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of realism" and is one of the founders of Modernism in theatre.[2] His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, and The Master Builder. He is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare,[3][4] and A Doll's House became the world's most performed play by the early 20th century.[5] Several of his later dramas were considered scandalous to many of his era, when European theatre was expected to model strict morals of family life and propriety. Ibsen's later work examined the realities Henrik Ibsen by Gustav Borgen that lay behind many façades, revealing much that Born Henrik Johan Ibsen was disquieting to many contemporaries. It utilized a 20 March 1828 critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life Skien, Grenland, Norway and issues of morality. The poetic and cinematic early play Peer Gynt, however, has strong surreal Died 23 May 1906 (aged 78) Kristiania, Norway elements.[6] (modern Oslo) Ibsen is often ranked as one of the truly great Occupation Writer playwrights in the European tradition.[7] Richard Nationality Norwegian Hornby describes him as "a profound poetic dramatist Genre Naturalism [8] —the best since Shakespeare".
    [Show full text]
  • Vedlegg 1.8.16 Ibsen
    IBSENBIBLIOTEKET PRINSIPPER OG INTENSJONER s. 2−8 FORSLAG TIL UTFYLLENDE TEMA I BYGG OG UTSTILLINGER s. 9-45 Utarbeidet av Jon Nygaard, Benedikte Berntzen og Anette Storli Andersen Versjon: mai 2019 1 INTENSJONER OG PRINSIPPER FOR BYGGET Skien skal forvalte et viktig ikon Ibsen er en av de aller største merkevarene Norge har. Stykkene hans er kjent og spilt over hele verden. Det er en merkevare som er positiv – om enn litt kjedelig, men først og fremst er Ibsen en norsk merkevare som lever sitt eget liv ute i verden. Viktigere enn at Ibsen er en norsk forfatter som er kjent i utlandet, er det at Ibsen er en forfatter som er blitt en del av verdens felles kulturelle arv. Ibsen er en forfatter som er tilpasset og blitt en del av kulturen i en rekke ulike land – også i navnet. Henrik Ibsen er ikke bare Henrik Ibsen, han er blant andre også Henry Gibson i England, Enrico Ibsen i Italia og Yibusheng i Kina. Ibsen er fra Skien, han er norsk, men som Peer Gynt er han også verdensborger. Folk over hele verden har møtt navnet Ibsen og utdrag av hans verk i sitt skolepensum i engelsk eller litteratur. De har fått vite at han er «det moderne dramas far» og at han, etter Shakespeare, er den dramatiker som er blitt spilt mest på teatrene over hele verden. Ibsens verk studeres ved de fleste universiteter og høgskoler. De tema og konflikter Ibsen presenterte, oppfattes i dag som viktige innlegg i kvinnekamp, religionskamp og miljøkamp. Ibsens verk oppleves som spesielt aktuelle i land som gjennomgår radikale endringer eller står overfor store utfordringer.
    [Show full text]
  • “Theatre Phenomenology” and Ibsen's the Master Builder
    NORDIC THEATRE STUDIES Vol. 31, No. 1. 2019, 124-140 “Theatre Phenomenology” and Ibsen’s The Master Builder DANIEL JOHNSTON ABSTRACT How might an actor find inspiration from philosophy to build a world on stage? This article examines how phenomenology can offer a framework for creating performance and a vocabulary for action in rehearsal. Taking Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder as a case-study, a number of exercises and approaches are suggested for exploring the text while drawing on Martin Heidegger’s lecture, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” which ponders the nature of “building”. Far from merely “constructing” an environment, essentially, building is “dwelling”. As the characters in Ibsen’s drama go about their dwelling, actors must build a world by bridging the gap between the stage, the ensemble, and the audience. KEYWORDS Phenomenology, Ibsen, The Master Builder, Heidegger, Building, Dwelling, Thinking, The Fourfold, Being, Rehearsal ISSN 2002-3898 © Daniel Johnston and Nordic Theatre Studies PEER REVIEWED ARTICLE Open access: https://tidsskrift.dk/nts/index Published with support from Nordic Board for Periodicals in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOP-HS) DOI: 10.7146/nts.v31i1.113005 Nordic Theatre Studies “Theatre Phenomenology” and Ibsen’s The Master Builder Introduction What does it mean to build a world? Humans do it in their everyday activities and interactions with others. Actors build a world in a different way. This article examines how one of continental philosophy’s most significant movements— phenomenology—can examine the meaning of “world” and provide a fertile source of inspiration for creative practice. Theatres are uniquely located at the intersection of multiple worlds—both real and imagined—of actors, characters, and audiences.1 This connection permits the theatrical event to explore what it means to make a world in a fictional context while also paying attention to the social context of the performance.
    [Show full text]