Ibsen and the Modern Self PDF
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A C T A I B S E N I A N A A The essays in this volume seek to place the Ibsenian self in the contexts of C T A cultural changes amidst the rise of modernism and the experimentations I B with new ways of theatrical representation. Contributors to this volume S E are leading scholars and drama specialists from different parts of the world. N I Adopting critical approaches ranging from psycho-moral considerations to A N ideology and gender studies, they highlight some of the latest reflections on A the self as manifested in Ibsen’s texts. V I I : EDITED BY Edited by FTK roerw Kwok-kan Tam dro e Hellany Siu-hank-kan Ta TFreorrdye SHiue-llhaannd Yip d Ym ip ISSN 1503-2981 ISBN 978-962-7707-73-8 IBSEN AND THE MODERN SELF Edited by Kwok-kan Tam Terry Siu-han Yip Frode Helland Consultant Knut Brynhildsvoll Acta Ibseniana VII-2010 Open University of Hong Kong Press The Open University of Hong Kong 30 Good Shepherd Street Ho Man Tin, Kowloon Hong Kong Fax: (852) 2396 5009 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.ouhk.edu.hk/OUHKpress.htm Ibsen and the Modern Self Edited by Kwok-kan Tam, Terry Siu-han Yip and Frode Helland Cover photo: Henrik Ibsen by Gustav Borgen (1865–1926) © Open University of Hong Kong Press, 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. ISSN: 1503-2981 ISBN: 978-962-7707-73-8 Printed in Hong Kong In memory of Asbjørn Aarseth (1935-2009) who made distinguished contributions to the field of Ibsen studies Contents Foreword ix Frode Helland Acknowledgements xi Terry Siu-han Yip and Kowk-kan Tam Introduction xii Kowk-kan Tam 1 Self-knowledge and aesthetic consciousness in Ibsen and Hegel 1 Kristin Gjesdal 2 The Gyntian self 17 Asbjørn Aarseth 3 The concept of «I» in Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt 3 1 Knut Brynhildsvoll 4 Reflections on the relationship between Ibsen’s character Peer Gynt 47 and Edvard Munch’s perception of the self Astrid Sæther 5 Narrative identity and a question of character in Ibsen’s Rosmersholm 61 Ewa Partyga 6 The dialogic self in A Doll’s House and The Wild Duck 7 8 Kwok-kan Tam 7 The emergence of androgynous women in A Doll’s House and 91 The Lady from the Sea Terry Siu-han Yip 8 Carp, the mermaid and the female self: Ethical thinking of gender 106 norms in The Lady from the Sea Xie Qun 9 The notion of moderation and Ibsen’s criticism of the average man 122 H. K. Riikonen 10 Staging the epic self: Theatricality, philosophy and personality in 139 Brand and Peer Gynt Mike Ingham 11 Emotions and the modern self in Ibsen’s poetry 163 Lisa L. M. Wong 12 Danse Macabre: John Gabriel Borkman’s self in eco-critical 181 perspective Xie Lanlan 13 The child’s deformity and the mother’s role —A study of female 193 identity in Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf Liu Yan 14 Seeing Nora in your mirror: The role of theatrical characters in 204 the playing of self Julie Holledge 15 Control, surrender and self-transcendence: Notes on Shakespeare’s 224 The Tempest and Ibsen’s The Master Builder Camilla Chun-pai Hsieh 16 Portrayal of the modern self in When We Dead Awaken 245 Jasminka Markovska 17 Ibsen in Dublin: A Nordic contribution to Irish modernity 265 Andrew Parkin 18 Master in reflection: An analysis of Lin Zhaohua’s The Master Builder 279 Lin Wei-yu 19 Ibsen’s Nora re-presented: Female body and identities in China Doll 298 Jessica Tsui Yan Li 20 Self and non-self: A Japanese view on Brand and Peer Gynt 311 Mitsuya Mori Notes on Contributors 324 Foreword In November 2008 more than 40 participants from all continents of the globe convened in Hong Kong for the conference ‘Ibsen and the Modern Self’. It was organized by three strong academic institutions: The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Ibsen’s time, 19th century modernity, was a time deeply marked by change, by the many processes that made ‘all that is solid melt into air,’ as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels famously put it. These changes were not only recognizable on the macro-level of production, distribution, communication and consumption, but also affected the individual being as such. Or put dif- ferently; the capitalist modernity of Ibsen’s time presupposed and demanded a new, modern individual. Often labelled the bourgeois individual, this new subject faced new forms of freedom and autonomy, but at the same time new dangers and forms of heteronomy. One could well speculate on the current renewed and growing interest in Ibsen, and venture the hypothesis that this trend has to do with us living in times characterized by similar deep, profound changes in society and in the internal structures of the subject. It is in any case an interesting aspect of the present book that so many of the different contributors seem to see the question of the modern self (and its relation to Ibsen) as a profoundly contemporary question. The topic of the conference and this book, then, turned out to be not only of historical inter- est, but of pressing actuality. Ibsen’s analysis of the dangers and possibilities facing his modern subject, is, in other words, still topical and relevant, in spite of the historical distance between Ibsen’s 19th century european modernity and our 21st century (more) globalized modernity. Another interesting aspect of the topic at stake here, ‘Ibsen and the modern self’, lies in its complex multiplicity. Only in the most abstract ix
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