Syllabus/achievement requirements

Primary texts

 

Poems

 

“Miner” (1851). In Ibsen’s Poems, edited and translated by John Northam, 27–28. Oslo: Norwegian University Press. (Available here)

 

Plays

 

Olaf Liljekrans (1857) (free download here)

The Vikings at Helgeland (1858) (any edition)

Brand (1866), preferably in Brand and Peer Gynt, London: Penguin, 2016.

Peer Gynt (1867), preferably in Brand and Peer Gynt, London: Penguin, 2016.

Ghosts (1881), preferably in A Doll’s House and other Plays, London: Penguin, 2016.

Hedda Gabler (1890), preferably in in Hedda Gabler and other Plays, London: Penguin, 2019.

 

 

Letters (In compendium)

 

To Bj?rnstjerne Bj?rnson, 16 September 1864 (35–39), 28 January 1865 (35–42, 44–47).

To Georg Brandes, 24 September 1871 (114–116), 4 April 1872 (120–123), 3 January 1882 (198–200). In Ibsen, Henrik. 1965. Letters and Speeches, edited by Evert Sprinchorn. Clinton, MA: MacGibbon & Kee.

 

 

Critical literature (in compendium)

 

Adorno, Theodor W. 1974. Minima Moralia. London: NLB, aphorisms 56–58.

Archer, William. 1972 (1891). “Ghosts and Gibberings”. In Henrik Ibsen. The Critical Heritage, edited by Michael Egan, 209–213. London and New York: Routledge.

Brandes, Georg. 1992 (1871). “Inaugural Lecture, 1871”. In The Theory of the Modern Stage. An Introduction to Modern Theatre and Drama, edited by Eric Bentley, 383–397. London: Penguin.

Durbach, Errol. 1994. “Brand: A Romantic Exile from Paradise”. In Bj?rn Hemmer and Vigdis Ystad (eds.), Contemporary Approaches to Ibsen VIII, 71–82. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Engelstad, Fredrik. 1994. “Between Moral Responsibility and Fanaticism: Reflections on Henrik Ibsen’s Brand”. In Bj?rn Hemmer and Vigdis Ystad (eds.), Contemporary Approaches to Ibsen VIII, 83–96. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Greenblatt, Stephen. 2008. “The Circulation of Social Energy”. In David Lodge and Nigel Wood, Modern Criticism and Theory. A Reader, 555–571.

Helgason, Jón Karl. 2017. “Hallgerd: A Bow-string Breaks”. In Echoes of Valhalla, 77–86. London: Reaktion Books.

James, Henry. 1972 (1891). “On the Occasion of Hedda Gabler”. In Henrik Ibsen. The Critical Heritage, edited by Michael Egan, 234–244. London and New York: Routledge.

Ledger, Sally. 2007. “Naturalism: ?Dirt and Horror Pure and Simple?”. In Adventures in Realism, edited by Matthew Beaumont, 68–83. Malden: Blackwell.

Moi, Toril. 2006. “The Idealist Straightjacket: Ibsen’s Early Aesthetics”. In Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism, 40–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ystad, Vigdis. 1991. “The Young Ibsen – Critic and Theatre-Writer”. Contemporary Approaches to Ibsen 7: 141–160.

Critical literature (accessible from the UiO network)

 

Beyer, Edvard. 1994. “The Reception of Ibsen’s Brand and Peer Gynt in Scandinavia 1866-68.” In Contemporary Approaches to Ibsen, Vol. 8, edited by Bj?rn Hemmer and Vigdis Ystad, 47-69. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press. (Link will be sent later)

B?, Gudleiv. 1994. “Love and Identity in Olaf Liljekrans”. In Proceedings – VII International Ibsen Conference, 284–298. Oslo: Centre for Ibsen Studies. https://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2012012406079

Fuls?s, Narve and Tore Rem. 2018. “From Stage to Page” and “No Escape”. In Ibsen, Scandinavia, and the Making of World Drama, 9–66. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.uio.no/10.1017/9781316946176.003

https://doi-org.ezproxy.uio.no/10.1017/9781316946176.004

Gjervan, Ellen. 2011. “Ibsen Staging Ibsen: Henrik Ibsen’s Culturally Embedded Staging Practice in Bergen”. Ibsen Studies 11 (II): 117–144.

            https://doi.org/10.1080/15021866.2011.617210

Helland, Frode. 2018. “The Scars of Modern Life. Hedda Gabler in Adorno’s Prism”. In Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Kristin Gjesdal, 92–111. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190467876.001.0001/oso-9780190467876-chapter-5

Hemmer, Bj?rn. 1994. “Ibsen and the Realistic Problem Drama”. In The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen, edited by James McFarlane, 68–88. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

            https://doi-org.ezproxy.uio.no/10.1017/CCOL0521411661.005

Hyldig, Keld. 2015. “Ibsen, Bj?rnson and the Art of Acting”, Nordlit 34, 287-302.

            https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3374

Kaplan, Merrill. 2004. “Hedda and Hj?rdis: Saga and scandal in Hedda Gabler and The Vikings at Helgeland”. Ibsen Studies 4 (I): 18–29.

            https://doi.org/10.1080/15021860410007744

Lisi, Leonardo. 2008. “Allegory, Capital, Modernity: Peer Gynt and Ibsen’s Modern Breakthrough”. Ibsen Studies 8 (I): 43–68.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.uio.no/10.1080/15021860802133751

Nilu, Kamaluddin. 2007. “Contemporary Political Relevance of Ibsen’s Brand – the Case of Islamic Fundamentalism”. Ibsen Studies 7 (I): 105–121.

            https://doi.org/10.1080/15021860701489007

Nygaard, Jon. 2014. “The Wilder the Starting Point: Some Critical Remarks to Michael Meyer’s Ibsen: A Biography”. Scandinavian Studies 86 (I): 72–97.

            https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.uio.no/stable/10.5406/scanstud.86.1.0072

Perrelli, Franco. 2018. “Ibsen and the Italian Risorgimento”. In On Ibsen and Strindberg. The Reversed Telescope, 2–11. London: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

            https://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/65006

Reinert, Otto. 1995. “Notes to Peer Gynt”. Scandinavian Studies 67 (IV): 434–475. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.uio.no/stable/40919806

Shepherd-Barr. 2018. “Against Interpretation? Hedda and the Performing Self”. In Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Kristin Gjesdal, 92–111. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190467876.001.0001/oso-9780190467876-chapter-9

Tysdahl, Bj?rn. 2003. “An advocatus diaboli reading Ibsen’s letters about art from Rome”. Ibsen Studies 3 (II): 210–224.

            https://doi.org/10.1080/15021860310000625

Aarseth, Asbj?rn. 2001. “Peer Gynt and Hegel’s Ideas on Egyptian Art”. Scandinavian Studies 73 (IV): 535-546. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.uio.no/stable/40920333

 

 

Suggested background reading

 

De Figueiredo, Ivo. 2019. Ibsen. The Man & The Mask. New Haven: Yale University Press.

The introductions in the respective New Penguin Ibsen editions.

Published June 8, 2020 5:57 PM - Last modified June 8, 2020 5:57 PM