The Drama of History: Ibsen, Hegel, Nietzsche

241 Pages·2020·2.153 MB·English

by  Kristin Gjesdal

Te Drama of History
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Te Drama of History
Ibsen, Hegel, Nietzsche
KRISTIN GJESDAL
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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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© Oxford University Press 2021
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You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gjesdal, Kristin, author.
Title: Te drama of history : Ibsen, Hegel, Nietzsche / by Kristin Gjesdal.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2020018268 (print) | LCCN 2020018269 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190070762 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190070786 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Ibsen, Henrik, 1828–1906—Criticism and interpretation. |
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831—Philosophy. |
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900—Philosophy. | Teater—Philosophy. |
Drama—19th century—History and criticism.
Classifcation: LCC PT8895 .G54 2020 (print) | LCC PT8895 (ebook) |
DDC 193—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018268
.d LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018269
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv
Timeline of Ibsen’s Published Drama xvii
Introduction 1
1. Losing Time (The Vikings at Helgeland) 11
Introducing Ibsen’s Early Work 14
German Prelude 15
Scandinavian Reverberations 22
Traditions Fading 28
Past and Present Histories 31
Reassessing Sturm und Drang 34
2. History Adrift; Subjectivity Probed (Peer Gynt) 36
Selfood and Identity 38
Pathologies of Selfood 41
Self and Other 47
Hegelianism in the Madhouse 50
Beyond Hegelianism 55
Systematic Lunacy 58
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SO Faith and Certainty 78
- AS Teater of Historicity 83
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.0 Breaking Free of Aestheticism 113
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vi Contents
5. Tragedy and Tradition (Ghosts) 116
From Hegel to Nietzsche 118
Te Ghosts of the Past 120
Challenging the Drama of Cognition 124
Retrieving the Greeks 127
Beyond the Classical 130
Tradition in Question 137
Modern Tragedy 143
6. Teaching History (An Enemy of the People) 146
Individual Greed, Placid Consensus 148
Te Death of Public Life 153
Being Human 158
Educational Commitments 162
Te Drama of Education 169
7. History and Existence (Hedda Gabler) 173
Nietzschean Overtures 176
History and Historians 179
History, Tragedy, Existence 187
Te Drama of Untimeliness 195
Concluding Remarks 199
Bibliography 203
Index 217
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Illustrations
Plate 1 Erik Werenskiold, Portrait of the Poet Henrik Ibsen. 1895. Painting; oil on
Canvas. 121.5 × 71.5 cm. Te National Museum of Art, Architecture and
Design (Inventory no.: NG.M.04206). Photographer: Børre Høstland.
Copyright Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design.
Plate 2 Edvard Munch. Te Sun. 1911. Oil on canvas. 455 × 780 cm.
Te University of Oslo. Photo © Munchmuseet.
Plate 3 Hans Gude and Adolph Tidemand. Bridal Procession on the Hardanger Fjord.
1848. Painting; oil on Canvas. 93.5 × 130.1 × 2.9 cm. Te National Museum
of Art, Architecture and Design (Inventory no: NG.M.00467). Photo: Børre
Høstland. Copyright: Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design.
Plate 4 Werner Rehm as Peer Gynt. From Peter Stein’s production of Peer Gynt (1971).
Schaubühne, Berlin. Photographer: Abisag Tüllmann. Copyright:
Teatermuseum München.
Plate 5 Anne Tismer as Nora. From Tomas Ostermeier’s production of Nora (2003).
Photographer: Arno Declair. Copyright: Shaubühne, Berlin.
Plate 6 Edvard Munch. Set Design for Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts. 1906. Oil on cardboard.
47.5 × 68 cm. Munchmuseet Photo © Munchmuseet.
Plate 7 Tessman (Lars Eidinger) and Julle (Lore Stefanek). From Tomas Ostermeier’s
production of Hedda Gabler (2006). Photographer: Gianmarco Bresadola.
Copyright: Shaubühne, Berlin.
Plate 8 Edvard Munch. Hedda Gabler. 1906– 07. Watercolour and pencil. 660 × 487 mm
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Preface
“Prose style is for ideas,” wrote Henrik Ibsen, the great Norwegian play-
wright, at the outset of the 1870s (rhyme letter to J. L. Heiberg, April 15, 1871;
HIS XII 493). In the second half of the Nineteenth Century, Ibsen played
a signifcant role in the larger, European movement to reinvent drama. His
towering presence—i n drama and cultural life more broadly— is nicely cap-
tured in Erik Werenskiold’s 1895 portrait of the poet (see color plate 1).
Ibsen and his peers sought to develop a drama for modernity. Creating a
drama for modernity, they also refected on past dramatic forms—a nd on the
relationship between drama and historical consciousness, more broadly. Te in-
tersection between modern drama and history had been at the center of modern
philosophy of theater as it developed in the late Enlightenment and Sturm
und Drang period. Later, these discussions of tragedy and drama would fun-
damentally shape the works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich
Nietzsche. Playwrights, directors, and critics, on their side, would turn to phi-
losophy for intellectual nourishment. Troughout the Nineteenth Century, phi-
losophy and drama engage in an ongoing process of mutual trade and exchange.
Te present study investigates this exchange between philosophy and
drama. By placing Ibsen’s dramatic engagement with history, tradition, and
the challenges of modern life and art within a broader intellectual context,
it ofers a philosophical interpretation of Ibsen’s work and discusses the
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sserP and movements that inspired Ibsen and other poets of his time, but to high-
ytisre light, discuss, and analyze the productive interchange between drama and
vinU philosophy that characterizes the second half of the Nineteenth Century. In
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