ABSTRACT
This chapter re-approaches questions of gender and family in Hedda Gabler by following Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s advice to “Forget the Name of the Father,” thinking instead about aunts. The aunts of Hedda Gabler and the projects that they enable lead me to argue that Ibsen’s drama comprises a pessimistic critique of the patriarchal family. Hedda Gabler’s empty nurseries and failed or suspended projects ultimately reveal that the future relies neither on inspiration nor precious children, but instead on collection, organization, and familial persistence. It is the limited horizons of this future that drive Hedda to commit suicide.
