Ibsen and Degeneration

Familial Decay and the Fall of Civilization

AvHenrik Johnsson

Häftad, Engelska, 2025

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Beskrivning

Henrik Ibsen’s plays were written at a critical juncture in late-19th-century European culture. Appearing at a time when notions of evolution and heredity were commonplace themes in literature and the arts, Ibsenian drama highlights the creative potential offered by contemporary evolutionary thought. In his plays, Ibsen explores variations on the theme of degeneration, imagining how families can become affected by ill-health or other forms of “weakness” that lead to the extinction of the family line. Ibsen and Degeneration looks at the recurrence of ideas of degeneration in three of Ibsen’s plays: In Ghosts, it is the motif of syphilis, highly shocking to Ibsen’s contemporaries, which serves as an allegory of degeneration. In Rosmersholm, degeneration is reconfigured as an overcultivation that eventually makes a family unfit for life. In Hedda Gabler, meanwhile, Hedda, having been for all practical purposes raised as a man, has come to think of herself as one, a circumstance which informs her final decision to end her life – her final degeneration. By reading these three plays from a fresh perspective, Ibsen and Degeneration sheds new light on some of Ibsen’s most enduring contributions to world drama.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2025-12-25
Mått:152 x 229 x 12 mm
Vikt:400 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Routledge Studies in Nineteenth Century Literature
Antal sidor:208
Förlag:Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:9781032747545

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Mer om författaren

Henrik Johnsson is Professor of Nordic Literature at Østfold University College, Norway. He holds a PhD in the history of literature from Stockholm University. He is the author of two monographs on the oeuvre of August Strindberg – Strindberg and Horror: Horror Motifs and the Theme of Identity in the Works of August Strindberg (2009) and The Infinite Coherence: August Strindberg’s Occult Science (2015). He is coeditor with Tessel M. Bauduin of the anthology The Occult in Modernist Art, Literature, and Cinema (2018). His current research explores the intersection of horror and desire in Nordic Gothic fiction.

Innehållsförteckning

IntroductionMorel and the rise of degeneration discourseMarriage, family, and incestDisease, diathesis, and syphilisEnergetic economy and the fixed fund of energy theoryWhat does Ibsen do with degeneration discourse?A note on the form and scope of the bookChapter 1. The Rot of the Bourgeois Body: Ghosts (1881)Ibsen’s commentary on GhostsThe raising of bourgeois childrenClass, health, and sexBourgeois patriarchy and Helene’s independenceAlving’s decline and fallOsvald’s energetic inheritanceRegine and regenerationChapter 2. The Fall of the Old Order: Rosmersholm (1886)Hvide heste and its relationship to RosmersholmRosmer, Kroll, and the fall of the old orderMarriage as the scene of threats to the social fabricStrength and weakness of willBrendel and the forces of entropyThe useless deaths of Rosmer and RebekkaChapter 3. Dominance and Deviance: Hedda Gabler (1890)August Strindberg’s “For Payment” as intertextDegeneration in Ibsen’s notes to Hedda GablerThe question of Hedda’s sexualityTesman as failed patriarchHedda’s need for dominationLøvborg’s loss of manhoodSexual competition and exclusivityHedda’s wasteful death4. Conclusion