Imagining Hedda Gabler: Munch and Ibsen on Art and Modern Life
Journal Title: Text Matters. A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture - Year 2017, Vol 7, Issue 7
Abstract
Among Edvard Munch’s many portraits of Henrik Ibsen, the famous Norwegian dramatist and Munch’s senior by a generation, one stands out. Large in scope and with a characteristic pallet of roughly hewed gray blue, green and yellow, the sketch is given the title Geniuses. Munch’s sketch shows Ibsen, who had died a few years earlier, in the company of Socrates and Nietzsche. The picture was a working sketch for a painting commissioned by the University. While Munch, in the end, chose a different motif for his commission, it is nonetheless significant that he found it appropriate to portrait the Norwegian dramatist in the company of key European philosophers, indeed the whole span of the European philosophical tradition from its early beginnings to its most controversial spokesman in the late 1800s. In my article, I seek to take seriously Munch’s bold and original positioning of Ibsen in the company of philosophers. Focusing on Hedda Gabler—a play about love lost and lives unlived—I explore the aesthetic-philosophical ramifications of Ibsen’s peculiar position between realism and modernism. This position, I suggest, is also reflected in Munch’s sketches for the set design for Hermann Bahr’s 1906 production of the play.
Authors and Affiliations
Kristin Gjesdal
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP332613
- DOI 10.1515/texmat-2017-0004
- Views 102
- Downloads 0
Responding to Modern Sensibilities: Emma and Edvard Entangled
This article is an edited version of the response paper offered at the conclusion of the symposium, Modern Sensibilities. It ties together themes from the symposium papers, as well as ideas prompted by Mieke Bal’s exhibi...
Here Be Monsters: Imperialism, Knowledge and the Limits of Empire
It has become a truism in discussions of Imperialist literature to state that the British empire was, in a very significant way, a textual exercise. Empire was simultaneously created and perpetuated through a proliferati...
The Paramount Role of Translation in Modern Opera Productions
Opera is undoubtedly a particularly high and traditional genre of art, but recently there have been numerous attempts at breaking this stereotype and presenting opera in a contemporary light. The most popular way of achi...
Imagining Hedda Gabler: Munch and Ibsen on Art and Modern Life
Among Edvard Munch’s many portraits of Henrik Ibsen, the famous Norwegian dramatist and Munch’s senior by a generation, one stands out. Large in scope and with a characteristic pallet of roughly hewed gray blue, green an...
The Conflicting Traditions of Portraying the Jewish People in the Chester Mystery Cycle
The article seeks to analyze the portrayal of the Jews in two plays from the Chester mystery cycle: “Trial and Flagellation” and “The Passion.” The analysis acknowledges that the cycle is a mixture of, and a dialogue bet...