A Philosophical Spotlight on “Vine Leaves”: Staging Ibsen Through the Lens of Hegel and Nietzsche Público
Li, Muyi (Fall 2020)
Abstract
Henrik Ibsen’s posthumous title “The Father of Realism” carries an illusory hint to present
Ibsen’s prose dramas as nothing more than nineteenth-century cultural journalism. In this thesis,
I explore the existential themes sometimes overlooked in traditional productions of Ibsen with
philosophical frameworks provided in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and Nietzsche’s The
Birth of Tragedy and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Though philosophically divergent, Nietzsche and
Hegel can be utilized as points of contrast that are nevertheless both useful in illuminating larger
themes in Ibsen’s work. My goal is to use these deepening philosophical perspectives as
inspirations for staging, design, and acting that might make Ibsen productions fuller, richer, and
more implicative than commonplace realism. In Chapter One, I will introduce Ibsen’s twelve
prose dramas written between 1875 and 1899, as well as Hegel and Nietzsche’s philosophy as
presented in the aforementioned works. In Chapters Two, Three, and Four, I will discuss specific
inspirations from Hegel and Nietzsche’s works for presenting three of Ibsen’s prose dramas:
Ghosts, When We Dead Awaken, and Hedda Gabler. Finally, in my conclusion, I will summarize
the three previous chapters and recapitulate my thesis statement about Ibsen’s prose dramas: that
they suggest an asymptotic relationship between reality and ideals, that they indicate how neither
drama nor life can be fully explained by any single philosophy, and that they demonstrate how
drama can take a neutral position between the conflicting perspectives it represents while
remaining empathetic and informed about them. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, I modified
this project from a live performance into a three-part theater photography portfolio consisting of
tableaus of nodal moments in these plays. This thesis aims to contribute to scholarship on
utilizing philosophical theories and theories from other disciplines in general for producing
theater.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction……………………………………………………………1
Chapter Two: Death as Dionysian Celebration in
Ghosts……………………………………………………………………………………..39
Chapter Three: Hyperawareness and Transcendence of the Corporeal in When We Dead
Awaken……………………………………………………………………………………62
Chapter Four: Theatricalization of Existential Horror and Absurdity
in Hedda Gabler….................................................................................92
Chapter Five: Conclusion……………………………………………………………..120
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………...124
Media Sources……………………………………………………………………………129
About this Honors Thesis
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