In spite of its central position in Ibsen’s oeuvre—and especially in his poetry—the long poem Terje Vigen (1862) is not often the object of scholarly attention. We are therefore delighted to present Lisbeth Pettersen Wærp’s article “Nature, Pathos, Heroism. Victor Sjöström’s Silent Film Adaptation (1917) of Ibsen’s Terje Vigen (1862),” where the author presents a new analysis of the iconic Swedish silent film adaptation. By focusing on the representation of landscapes in the poem and film, as well as through a comparison between screenshots of the cinematography and Norwegian paintings of the period, Wærp opens up new perspectives on and interpretations of the work of Ibsen and Sjöström. On the one hand, the stunning nature scenes reinforce the heroic and idealistic side of the poem, an aspect upon which previous scholarship tends to agree. On the other hand, however, Sjöström adds a number of sunset scenes, which are not mentioned in the poem and which complicate Terje Vigen’s seemingly heroic figure. Is it melancholy and regret the actor gives expression to, and what are the consequences for our understanding of the poem? In so doing, Wærp approaches Terje Vigen as a more modern and complex work than previously understood.
The other two articles contribute to and corroborate the flourishing field of Ibsen’s global reception, both in his own time and today. Ewa Partyga’s “A Second Polish Nora: Gabriela Zapolska in Search of her Own Ibsen” adds important new knowledge to both the history of the early Polish reception of Ibsen and to the legacy of actresses who made Nora a central part of their repertoire, thus spreading A Doll’s House outside Norway. Partyga gives an overview of the Polish theatrical world at the end of the nineteenth century, before she goes on to a general assessment of Ibsen’s introduction in Poland and of the work of the first Polish Nora, the star actress Helena Modrzejewska. Against this background, Partyga proceeds to a detailed, chronological analysis of Zapolska’s career, with a special emphasis on the different productions of A Doll’s House she was involved in, the relationship between Modrzejewska’s acting style and her own, and the mutual entanglements between Polish and European theatre.
The third article, Burç İdem Dinçel’s “Thomas Ostermeier’s An Enemy of the People in Istanbul,” focuses on both the performance and the reception of Ostermeier’s Ibsen production in Turkey in 2014. Drawing upon David Barnett, Fredric Jameson and Jacques Rancière, Dinçel shows how Ostermeier’s production in Turkey represented a peculiar case of political theatre, both because of his interpretation of Ibsen’s play, and because of the political turmoil that was sweeping Turkey at the time it was staged. Due to the interaction between performance-internal and performance-external elements – such as the use of iconic gestures or specific words in the Turkish subtitles to the performance – Dinçel documents how the audience was drawn to an identification with Tomas Stockmann and therefore to a specific interpretation of the play. This interpretation was so evident that it even spurred a critical response by the press gravitating around the Turkish AKP movement, making Ostermeier’s An Enemy of the People one of the most important examples of Ibsen’s longstanding global appeal and relevance for different political and social conflicts.
Giuliano D’Amico
Centre for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo