Academic Bulletin Theater - 2008-09 - 103 THE 103

In plays written throughout the last half of the nineteenth century, the Norwegian playwright Henrik Isben (1828-1906) addressed societal ills, exposed Victorian hypocrisies, and shocked critics and audiences. He interrogated the major issues of his day: the conflict between science and religion, the role of the individual in society, and the “woman question.” This course will cover many of Ibsen’s major works: from the fantastical (Peer Gynt), to the realistic (A Doll House, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler), to the experimental and avant-garde (The Master Builder and When we Dead Awaken). To place Ibsen in context, we will also consider the scholarship of his contemporaries George Bernard Shaw, Brander Matthews, and William Archer, while analyzing newer critical work by Raymond Williams, Joan Templeton, Marvin Charlson, and Rolf Fjelde. This course if offered the first half of the semester.