Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism
Art, Theater, Philosophy
Toril Moi
Reviews and Awards
Winner of the 15th annual Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies 2006
"...an illuminating rer-valuation of the influence of aesthetic idealism, a welcome discussion about the need to take back real language in literary criticism, a veritable handbook of imaginative approaches to take to the culture clash of the nineteenth century, a sometimes fruitful, often frustrating, even troubling read for those who have been engaged with Ibsen for a long time..." - Mary Kay Norseng MLR
"The best literary criticism makes us see authors and literary works in a new light and inspires us with a desire to reread them. This is the critical alchemy that Toril Moi achieves with her accessibly written yet genuinely scholarly book Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism. A sustained study of a single major author, the book also has global sweep and interdisciplinary breadth. Moi situates Ibsen and Norway within the European republic of letters, overturns the conventional reading of Ibsen as a realist predecessor of modern theater, and produces a compelling answer to the perennial question, "What is modernism?" By reframing Ibsen as a modernist, Moi gives fresh meaning to Ibsens work across disciplines and to his influential engagement with modern visual culture." - MLA Prize Committee
"Moi's clear-eyed revaluation of the playwright...is particularly good on Ibsen's women, refusing to idealise them and placing them at the heart of his investigative project." - Plays International
