Ibsen and the Greeks
Subtitle: the classical Greek dimension in selected works of Henrik Ibsen as mediated by German and Scandinavian culture
By: Norman Rhodes.
Publisher: Bucknell University Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Lewisburg [Pa.]; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 209
Subjects: Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906 -- Criticism and interpretation.; Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906 -- Knowledge -- Greek literature.; Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906 -- Knowledge -- German literature.
Description: Was Ibsen influenced by Greek culture? Were allusions to the Greeks configured in the Norwegian playwright's works? According to author Norman Rhodes, whether consciously or unconsciously, many of Ibsen's plays are encoded with veiled references to ancient Greek culture. Rhodes also postulates that Ibsen's perception of the importance of the Greeks was most likely mediated to him through German Romanticism and Scandinavian culture.

According to Rhodes, numerous echoes of Greek literature resonate in such early Ibsen plays as Catiline, The Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljerkrans, and Love's Comedy. Ibsen's Brand and Peer Gynt are a dialectic pair which in key ways are suggestive of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, A Doll House has important parallels with Sophocles' Antigone, and An Enemy of the People correlates with both Plato's Apology and Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos.

Moreover, a Euripidean sense of fatal irrationality seems inscribed in Ibsen's final plays: the protagonists John Rosmer, Hedda Gabler, Master Builder Solness, John Gabriel Borkman, and the sculptor Rubek all destroy themselves.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.