ABSTRACT
By the time Ibsen died in 1906, his plays had already conquered the theaters of the Western world. Inviting rapturous praise as well as fi erce controversy, they were performed in Europe, North America and Australia, contributing greatly to the theater, culture and social life of these continents. Soon after Ibsen’s death, his plays entered the stages of East Asia-Japan, China, Korea-as well as Africa and Latin America. In all these places, the plays triggered heated debates on aesthetic, cultural, social and political issues. There exist countless studies on Ibsen the dramatist and the signifi cance of his plays within different cultures written mainly by literary scholars. However, none of them examine the ways in which they were performed or the impact of such performances on the theater, social life and politics of these cultures. This is all the more surprising when considering that, nowadays, Ibsen’s plays rank among those most frequently performed world-wide, rivaled only by Brecht, Chekhov, Shakespeare and the Greek tragedies. This book seeks to remedy this deplorable situation.
