The wars, revolutions, and totalitarian repressions of the first half of the twentieth century were normally, and often rightly, regarded as threats to the survival of whole societies. Those two entities, however, are at best theoretical constructs. The culture of dissent appears to include every expression of dismay or doubt, every manifestation of nonconformity, every attempt to startle or arouse. This approach is an exercise in dramatic economy. Henriksen's play requires only two actors, each of whom can don any number of costumes.
Simple dualities are often helpful, and sometimes necessary, to the cultural historian.
But this pair of opposites has entirely too much to do. It is supposed to make us understand how millions of individual members of a richly diverse society reacted to an enormous range of military, political, economic, moral, religious, artistic, and psychological problems. That is quite a challenge. Henriksen, a historian, meets it in a largely literary way. Having created the drama of opposite cultures, she expounds its meaning by applying the methods of my own guild, the literary interpreters and critics.