Ibsen Between Cultures

Being part of the global theatre-repertoire Ibsen´s plays are continually subject to localising acts, where the interplay between the local and the global may be studied as an interweaving of different cultures. The general aim of the project is to consid er the question of how one can account for the extraordinary international success of Ibsen´s plays. Its specific goal is to reach an understanding of Ibsen´s function as a global dramatist, i.e. how an Ibsen play is evaluated, and how the value of the pl ays are altered, shifted, transferred and appropriated, when localised in new cultural contexts. Such an understanding can however only be reached through an analysis of local, culturally specific arenas. Without conceiving of culture as national, the pr oject will accordingly focus on contemporary Ibsen productions in China, India and Bangladesh, who all posess well-documented and solid Ibsen-traditions. Being part of the local theatre-traditions in these countries, Ibsen is done in relation to a specifi c situation within the cultures, originating within their own theatres. The project is being undertaken by an established international group of co-operating scholars, and will combine textual and performance analysis, informed by cultural analysis. Brin ging together scholars from the fields of performance analysis, intercultural studies and literature makes the project unique. The ambition is not to study aesthetic artefacts that are translated from an "original", but to see the local performance as the original itself. Only from such a vantage point can one clarify the site-specific appropriation of the specific plays. In this sense the project aims at working with relational questions. The relations to be studied are multifaceted. The question whethe r these relations contribute to a standardisation of aesthetic expression and valuation, or whether they should rather be seen as contributing to new forms of diversity will be central.