15 November 2023, 17:30 (Zoom)
Ibsen criticism in the last half century has come to rely on what we may call an interpretative matrix that promotes or facilitates a certain interpretative perspective and certain arguments while it blocks or suppresses other kinds of arguments and perspectives. This interpretative matrix has been particularly prominent in the criticism of Ibsen’s social plays from Pillars of Society (1877) to Hedda Gabler (1890). Taking Hedda Gabler as an example this paper will illustrate how this interpretative matrix blocks certain avenues of inquiry that might provide alternative perspectives on the play.
Bio: Prof. Stein Haugom Olsen is an adjunct professor at Bilkent’s ELIT department, of which he was formerly Head. His research ranges widely over many topics in the philosophy of literature and the philosophy of the humanities, though he has also published articles on Jane Austen, William Golding, Hugh McColl, and Henrik Ibsen. With books on Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press as well as edited books on Palgrave Macmillan and Wiley-Blackwell his work is widely cited. He is at the moment completing a book with the title Critical Concepts and Critical Instruments and has a further book on The Origin of Academic Literary Criticism in preparation.