Entertaining Intertexts. Henrik Ibsen's Use of Popular Theatre. In Conversation with Ellen Rees

Ellen Rees from the Center for Ibsen Studies at Oslo University
introduces Henrik Ibsen as a theatre practitioner. She unfolds
surprising resonances between French musical comedies by Eugène
Scribe and Henrik Ibsen's most famous plays, A Doll's
House and Hedda Gabler. We question romantic
distinctions between high literature and popular theatre, and
discuss Ellen's new theory on Ibsen's way to realism through the
vaudeville. We are confronted with deadly links between money and
love, and are reminded of the existence of academic bullying. But
in the end, we are reminded of the joy of shouting out our crazy
discoveries in the halls of venerable academic institutions.


(00:30:00) Introducing Ellen Rees 


(00:02:12) How Did Ellen Rees End Up in Scandinavian Studies?


(00:06:00) The Centre for Ibsen Studies at Oslo University 


(00:09:30) Who was Henrik Ibsen?


(00:12:24) Doing Research on Ibsen 


(00:18:19) Ibsen as a Theatre Practitioner


(00:23:27) The Method and Process of Comparing


(00:28:20) Theatre History and the Vaudeville Genre


(00:38:42) Questioning the Idea of the Modern
Breakthrough           


(00:45:42) A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler in
Comparison with Scribe 


(00:53:45) Ibsen’s Contemporary Audience


(00:57:35) Ibsen and Comedy 


(00:59:17) Hedda Gabler and Le budget d’une jeune
ménage


(01:12:35) Parodic Strategies


(01:14:13) Student Question 


(01:17: 27) The Crisis of Modernity


(01:22:06) The Position of Theatre Within the Global Literary
System


(01:28:28) Announcement: Online Database


(01:29:59) What Advice Would You Give Your Student-Self?


Bibliography, further information, and comments are available on
Experiment Geisteswissenschaften.


https://exgeist.hypotheses.org/


Idea and conception: Stefanie von Schnurbein


Cut: Cecilia Falkman