Abstract
Ibsen has created long-lasting impacts in China because the provocative social messages in his plays meet the needs for social change in China. The messages presented in his plays, such as social moral, institution, family, gender and self, are universal and basic to human life no matter how China has changed. Ibsen’s impacts are longer lasting and greater in effect than are those of many other thinkers because Ibsen’s ideas are conveyed through artistic means that have created new discourses on social reality. Ibsenism is stage presentations of new realities of the self and new social psychology. It is ideology that has become art, and art that has become ideology. In the Chinese context, re-imagination of the self has an ideological power in reshaping social relations. Ibsenism is the art of public sphere.
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Notes
- 1.
See Li Changzhi 李長之, Northern European Literature [Bei’Ou wenxue 北歐文學] (Chongqing: Commercial Press, 1945) and Pan Jiaxun 潘家洵, “The Modern Western Problem Play” [Jindai xiyang wenti juben 近代西洋問题劇本], Parts I, II, & III, Western Literature [Xiyang wenxue 西洋文學], no. 1–3 (1940), 5–8, 167–72, 282–87.
- 2.
Xiao Qian (Hsiao Ch’ien) 蕭乾, “Peer Gynt—A Verse Drama Condemning Individualism” [“Pi’er jinte 皮爾金特—Yi bu. qing xuan geren zhuyi de shi ju 一部清算個人主義的詩劇], Ta Kung Pao (Hong Kong) , 15 August 1949.
- 3.
Hsiao Ch’ien (Xiao Qian), “Ibsen in China,” 1944, 16.
- 4.
In Lu Xun’s The True Story of Ah Q , the protagonist, Ah Q, and a number of other minor characters are presented as self-deceived persons, to whom individuality is never known.
- 5.
Hsiao Ch’ien (Xiao Qian), 16.
- 6.
Quoted from Georg Plekhanov, “Henrik Ibsen,” trans. Qu Qiubai 瞿秋白, in Collected Works of Qu Qiubai [Qu Qiubai wenji 瞿秋白文集], Vol. 2 (Beijng: Renmin chubanshe, 1953), 1083–84. A full translation of the essay by Lu Ying can be found in Selections of Foreign Literary Criticism [Waiguo wenxue pinglun xuan 外國文學評論選], II (Changsha: Hunan renmin chubanshe, 1982), 178–255. The English translation cited here is from Emily Kent, Lolo Sachs, and Pearl Waskow, “Ibsen, Petty Bourgeois Revolutionist,” in Ibsen, ed. Angel Flores (New York: Critics Group, 1937), 88–89.
- 7.
Ah Ying (Qian Xingcun), “Ibsen’s Works in China,” 742.
- 8.
International Section [Guoji zhu 國際組] of Ta Kung Pao , “The Norwegian Dramatist Henrik Ibsen” [Nuowei xiju jia Henglike Yibusheng 挪威戲劇家亨利克易卜生], in World Famous Cultural Figures Commemorated in 1956 [1956 nian jinian de shijie wenhua mingren1956 年記念的世界文化名人] (Beijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe, 1956), 44. See Figure 1.
- 9.
Ibid., 45.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
The essay was later published in Jie’er Chawen 傑爾查文 [Constantin Derzhawin], “Yibusheng lun” [On Ibsen 易卜生論], trans. Li Xiangchong 李相崇 and Wang Yizhu 王以鑄 (Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1956).
- 12.
Konstantin Derzhavin, “Henrik Ibsen,” trans. Li Xiangchong 李相崇 and Wang Yizhu 王以鑄 as “Yibusheng lun 易卜生論,” in Translation [Yiwen 譯文], no. 35 (May 1956): 136.
- 13.
Ibid., 136–37.
- 14.
Ibid., 137
- 15.
Ibid., 156.
- 16.
Dai Liuling, “A Critique of the Fallacious Viewpoints and Methods in Hu Shi’s ‘Ibsenism’” [Pipan Hu Shi de “Yibusheng zhuyi” de cuowu guandian he fangfa 批判胡適的 “易卜生主羲” 的錯誤觀點], Sun Yat-sen University Journal [Zhongshan daxue xuebao 中山大學學報], no. 4 (1956): 126. There is detailed discussion of Hu Shi’s essay, “Ibsenism,” in Elisabeth Eide’s “Et kinesisk syn pa Ibsen. Hu Shi og Ibsens betydning for liberale strominger in Kina,” Edda 6 (1979): 349–63 and Chapter Five of this book.
- 17.
Ibid., 137.
- 18.
Ah Ying, 742–43.
- 19.
Chen Shouzhu 陳瘦竹, “A Study of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House” [Yibusheng “Wan’ou zhi jia” yanjiu易卜生《玩偶之家》研究] (Shanghai: Xin wenyi chubanshe, 1958), 1.
- 20.
Ye Junjian 葉君健, “Nineteenth Century Northern European Literature” [Shijiu shiji de Bei’ou wenxue 十九世紀的北歐文學], in West House Collection [Xi lou ji 西樓集] (Nanchang: Jiangxi renmin chubanshe, 1981), 129–49.
- 21.
Chen Dayuan 陳達遠, “Ibsen’s Home” [Yibusheng de guju 易卜生的故居], in Lyrical Essays Written Abroad [Yuwai shuqing ji 域外抒情集] (Beijing: Beijing chuban she, 1979), 127.
- 22.
Cao Yu 曹禺, “In Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of Ibsen’s Birth” [Jinian Yibusheng tanchen yibaiwushi zounian 記念易卜生誕辰一百五十周年], People’s Daily [Renmin ribao 人民日報], 21 March 1978.
- 23.
Klara Zetkin, “Henrik Ibsen,” trans. Fu Weici 付惟慈, in A Collection of Zetkin’s Literary Criticism [Caitejin wenxue pinglun ji 蔡特金文學評論集] (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1978), 1.
- 24.
Ibid., 4.
- 25.
Wu Wenhui 吳文輝, Yi Xinnong 易新農, and Zhang Guopei 張國培, eds., Foreign Literature [Waiguo wenxue 外國文學], II (Beijing: Waiguuo wenxue chubanshe, 1979), 309.
- 26.
Ibid., 311.
- 27.
Zhu Weizhi 朱維之 and Zhao Li 趙澧, eds., “Ibsen” [Yibusheng 易卜生], in An Outline of Foreign Literature [Waiguo wenxue jianpian 外國文學簡編] (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 1980), 442.
- 28.
Ibid., 448.
- 29.
Liao Kedui 廖可兑, “Ibsen and His Play A Doll’s House” [Yibusheng he ta de juzuo “Wan’ou zhi jia” 易卜生和他的劇作《玩偶之家》], Drama Studies [Xiju xuexi 戲劇學習], no. 1 (1979): 67.
- 30.
Yan Zheng 嚴錚, “A Brief Study of Ibsen’s Famous Play A Doll’s House”” [Jian Yibusheng de ming zhu “Wan’ou zhi jia” 簡論易卜生名著《玩偶之家》], Henan Normal University Journal [Henan shifan daxue xuebao 河南師範大學學報], no. 6 (1979): 81.
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Yan Zheng 嚴錚, “Ibsen’s A Doll’s House” [Yibusheng de ‘Wan’ou zhi jia” 易卜生的《玩偶之家》], in Fifty-five Lectures on Foreign Literature [Waiguo wenxue wushiwu jiang 外國文學五十五講], II (Guizhou: Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1980), 301.
- 33.
Ibid., 313.
- 34.
Wu Lichang 吳立昌 et al., “Ibsen and His Problem Plays” [Yibusheng ji qi wenti ju 易卜生及其問題劇], in A Concise Encyclopedia of Literature and Art [Wenyi xiao baike 文藝小百科] (Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 1982), 252.
- 35.
Shen Mo 沈默, “Art in the Structure of A Doll’s House” [“Wan’ou zhi jia” de jiegou yishu 《玩偶之家》的結構藝術], Hebei Drama [Hebei xiju 河北戲劇], no. 3 (1981): 42. Reprinted in Studies in Drama (Xiju yanjiu 戲劇研究), no. 3 (1981): 117.
- 36.
Xiao Qian (Hsiao Ch’ien) 蕭乾, “Translator’s Preface to Peer Gynt” [“Pi’er jinte” yizhe qian ji 《皮爾金特》譯者前記], World Literature [Shijie wenxue 世界文學], no. 3 (1978), 71.
- 37.
Wang Zhongxiang 王忠祥, “Notes on Ibsen’s ‘Problem Plays’” [Yibusheng ‘shehui wenti ju’ chuyi 易卜生社會問題劇謅議], Central China Normal College Journal [Huazhong shiyuan xuebao 華中師院學報], no. 2 (1982): 64–69.
- 38.
Qin Zhixi 秦志希, “A Comparative Study of Thunderstorm and Ghosts” [“Leiyu” yu “Qungui” de bijiao fenxi 《雷雨》與《羣鬼》的比較分析], Foreign Literature Studies [Waiguo wenxue yanjiu 外國文學研究], no. 4 (1983): 100.
- 39.
Sun Wei 孫葳, “A Common Misinterpretation—A Brief Note on the Ibsenian Structure” [Yige chuantong de wujie – xiaoyi Yibusheng shi de jiegou 一個傳統的誤解—小議易卜生式的結構], Foreign Literature [Waiguo wenxue 外國文學], no. 3 (1983): 99.
- 40.
Theatre experimentations with Ibsen’s plays since the 1980s will be discussed in Chapter Nine of this book.
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Tam, Kk. (2019). Chapter Eight Postsocialist Ibsenism Beyond Class Ideology. In: Chinese Ibsenism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6303-0_9
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