Ibsen and Degeneration

Henrik Ibsen’s plays were written at a critical juncture in late-19th-century European culture. Appearing at a time when notions of evolution and heredity were commonplace themes in literature and the arts, Ibsenian drama highlights the creative potential offered by contemporary evolutionary thought...

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Autore principale: Johnsson, Henrik
Natura: Online
Lingua:inglese
Pubblicazione: Taylor & Francis 2025
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Accesso online:ONIX_20250521T155841_9781040098974_58
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author Johnsson, Henrik
author_browse Johnsson, Henrik
author_facet Johnsson, Henrik
author_sort Johnsson, Henrik
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Henrik Ibsen’s plays were written at a critical juncture in late-19th-century European culture. Appearing at a time when notions of evolution and heredity were commonplace themes in literature and the arts, Ibsenian drama highlights the creative potential offered by contemporary evolutionary thought. In his plays, Ibsen explores variations on the theme of degeneration, imagining how families can become affected by ill-health or other forms of “weakness” that lead to the extinction of the family line. Ibsen and Degeneration looks at the recurrence of ideas of degeneration in three of Ibsen’s plays: In Ghosts, it is the motif of syphilis, highly shocking to Ibsen’s contemporaries, which serves as an allegory of degeneration. In Rosmersholm, degeneration is reconfigured as an overcultivation that eventually makes a family unfit for life. In Hedda Gabler, meanwhile, Hedda, having been for all practical purposes raised as a man, has come to think of herself as one, a circumstance which informs her final decision to end her life – her final degeneration. By reading these three plays from a fresh perspective, Ibsen and Degeneration sheds new light on some of Ibsen’s most enduring contributions to world drama. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1600732025-05-22T05:06:10Z Ibsen and Degeneration Johnsson, Henrik Nineteenth-Century Literature Henrik Ibsen Scandinavian Literature Gengangere Rosmersholm Hedda Gabler thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBF Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory Henrik Ibsen’s plays were written at a critical juncture in late-19th-century European culture. Appearing at a time when notions of evolution and heredity were commonplace themes in literature and the arts, Ibsenian drama highlights the creative potential offered by contemporary evolutionary thought. In his plays, Ibsen explores variations on the theme of degeneration, imagining how families can become affected by ill-health or other forms of “weakness” that lead to the extinction of the family line. Ibsen and Degeneration looks at the recurrence of ideas of degeneration in three of Ibsen’s plays: In Ghosts, it is the motif of syphilis, highly shocking to Ibsen’s contemporaries, which serves as an allegory of degeneration. In Rosmersholm, degeneration is reconfigured as an overcultivation that eventually makes a family unfit for life. In Hedda Gabler, meanwhile, Hedda, having been for all practical purposes raised as a man, has come to think of herself as one, a circumstance which informs her final decision to end her life – her final degeneration. By reading these three plays from a fresh perspective, Ibsen and Degeneration sheds new light on some of Ibsen’s most enduring contributions to world drama. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. 2025-05-22T05:06:09Z 2025-05-22T05:06:09Z 2025-05-21T14:56:53Z 2024 book ONIX_20250521T155841_9781040098974_58 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/102273 9781040098974 9781040098981 9781032744759 9781003470731 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/160073 eng Routledge Studies in Nineteenth Century Literature open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/102273/1/9781040098974.pdf Taylor & Francis Routledge 10.4324/9781003470731 10.4324/9781003470731 fa69b019-f4ee-4979-8d42-c6b6c476b5f0 4ea3f395-de0e-421f-af20-a10ac27abff8 9781040098974 9781040098981 9781032744759 9781003470731 Routledge 216 Oxford [...] open access
spellingShingle Nineteenth-Century Literature
Henrik Ibsen
Scandinavian Literature
Gengangere
Rosmersholm
Hedda Gabler
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBF Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
Johnsson, Henrik
Ibsen and Degeneration
title Ibsen and Degeneration
title_full Ibsen and Degeneration
title_fullStr Ibsen and Degeneration
title_full_unstemmed Ibsen and Degeneration
title_short Ibsen and Degeneration
title_sort ibsen and degeneration
topic Nineteenth-Century Literature
Henrik Ibsen
Scandinavian Literature
Gengangere
Rosmersholm
Hedda Gabler
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBF Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
topic_facet Nineteenth-Century Literature
Henrik Ibsen
Scandinavian Literature
Gengangere
Rosmersholm
Hedda Gabler
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBF Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
url ONIX_20250521T155841_9781040098974_58
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