A Philosophical Spotlight on “Vine Leaves”: Staging Ibsen Through the Lens of Hegel and Nietzsche 公开

Li, Muyi (Fall 2020)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/t148fj25t?locale=zh
Published

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.

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

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School	Emory College
Department	Theater Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Philosophy Theater Performing Arts
关键词	Nietzsche Drama Philosophy Theater Performance Henrik Ibsen Hegel
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Michael Evenden, Emory University
Committee Members	Sara Culpepper, Emory University Jessica Wahman, Emory University

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