In the history of modern theatre; Ibsen is one of the dominating figures. The sixteen chapters of this 1994 Companion explore his life and work; providing an invaluable reference work for students. In chronological terms they range from an account of Ibsens earliest pieces; through the years of rich experimentation; to the mature Ibsenist plays that made him famous towards the end of the nineteenth century. Among the thematic topics are discussions of Ibsens comedy; realism; lyric poetry and feminism. Substantial chapters account for Ibsens influence on the international stage and his challenge to theatre and film directors and playwrights today. Essential reference materials include a full chronology; list of works and essays on twentieth-century criticism and further reading.
#1476439 in eBooks 1994-02-25 1994-02-25File Name: B00AA8JREC
Review
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. The German ConnectionBy Richard B. SchwartzTake one of the great intellectual historians of the 20thc and turn him loose on a subject as vast; important and convoluted as Romanticism and you have the most winning of combinations. The Roots of Romanticism is not a monograph; however; it is a set of lectures delivered in 1965 in the Bollingen series at the National Gallery. As such; the resulting material is very accessible. While Berlin is not speaking in an off-the-cuff; informal voice he is aware (and concerned) that the lecture format risks being less rigorous than a more discursive; settled; lsquo;permanentrsquo; form. The book includes both an appendix that includes letters concerning the delivery of the lectures and a set of references elucidating the material in the lectures.Berlinrsquo;s take on Romanticism can be briefly summarized. He knows that it has a core set of perspectives but that as an all-encompassing phenomenon it resists definition. lsquo;Difficulty of definitionrsquo; bedeviled such great predecessors as Lovejoy and Frye and thus Berlin will resist the temptation.That does not mean that he will not summarize Romanticismrsquo;s core principles. The problem here is that one must select a locus for that core. Romanticism looks vastly different if your central figure is Wordsworth rather than; e.g.; Blake. Berlinrsquo;s central figures; however; are German (highly influential for Coleridge; of course). He sees their defining characteristics as a kind of anomie and feeling of marginalization that ultimately resulted from the depredations of the Thirty Years War. These are men who are affected by Lutheran pietism; individuals lsquo;of a humiliated kindrsquo; who resist their plight by living in consciousness and who; ultimately; strive to turn the world into an aesthetic construct.They stress the indomitable will (in the face of straightened circumstances and a 2;000 year tradition of seeing the world as knowable and intelligible) and stress sincerity over reason (as their inheritors; the existentialists; will stress lsquo;authenticityrsquo;). Their posture can embrace such seemingly contradictory poses as that of the primitive on the one hand and the dandy on the other; since each pose challenges the orderly; established status quo.The English model here is; of course; Byron; and Berlin traces the influences of the Byronic hero. It is not a pretty picture but Berlin argues; at the end; that Romanticism has resulted in a form of stability which its progenitors considered anathema. Given the fact that Romanticism ends with the celebration of will; power and a noticeable amount of antinomianism and nihilism; we finally realize that this lsquo;passionate; fanatical; half-mad doctrinersquo; brings us to the realization that we must tolerate others and that we must see lsquo;the necessity of preserving an imperfect equilibrium in human affairs . . . .rsquo;This may be a little too hyperbolic and it may be a little too optimistic; but the book is never dull. It is highly recommended for all readers of intellectual history.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A Robin Red breast in a Cage - Puts all Heaven in a Rage - William BlakeBy Clay GarnerThe tension- even war - between the enlightenment (Locke) and romanticism (Wagner) has produced the conflicted modern present. Berlin presents a masterful analysis of why and when romanticism appeared in European thought. Great!1 In Search of a Definition2 The First Attack on Enlightenment3 The True Fathers of Romanticism4 The Restrained Romantics5 Unbridled Romanticism6 The Lasting EffectsA great many phenomena of the present day ndash;nationalism; existentialism; admiration for great men; admiration for impersonal institutions; democracy; totalitarianism ndash;are profoundly affected by the rise of Romanticism; which enters them all. For this reason it is a subject not altogether irrelevant even to our own day.rsquo; (xiii) It is like present thinks - enlightenment - and then acts on - Romanticism.By the 1820s you find an outlook in which the state of mind; the motive; is more important than the consequence; the intention is more important than the effect. Purity of heart; integrity; devotion; dedication ndash;all these things which we ourselves admire without much difficulty; which have entered into the very texture of our normal moral attitudes; became more or less commonplace; first among minorities; then gradually they spread outwards. (11)Berlins explanation of German Romanticism - This did plant in Germany a permanent sense of sadness and humiliation which may be discovered in the rather doleful German ballad literature and popular literature of the end of the seventeenth century; and even in the arts in which the Germans excelled ndash;even in music; which tends to be domestic; religious; passionate; inward; and above all different from the glittering court art and splendid secular achievements of composers like Rameau and Couperin.There is no doubt that if you compare composers like Bach and his contemporaries; and Telemann; with French composers of that period; then although Bachrsquo;s genius is incomparably greater; the whole atmosphere and tone of his music is much more; I will not say provincial; but confined to the particular inner religious life of the city of Leipzig (or wherever he happened to live); and was not intended to be an offering before the glittering courts of Europe; or for the general admiration of mankind; in the way in which the paintings and the musical compositions of the English; the Dutch; the French and the other leading nations of the world were obviously intended.Against this background the pietist movement; which really is the root of Romanticism; became deeply embedded in Germany. Pietism was a branch of Lutheranism; and consisted in careful study of the Bible and profound respect for the personal relationship of man to God. (40)The whole thing was of course an immense protest against the French. It spread beyond Germany. Phenomena of this kind are noticeable in England also; where the most eloquent exponent of this point of view; somewhat later than Hamann; is the mystical poet William Blake. Blakersquo;s enemies; the persons whom he regards as the villains of the whole modern period; are Locke and Newton. Them he regards as those devils who killed the spirit by cutting reality into some kind of mathematically symmetrical pieces; whereas reality is a living whole which can be appreciated only in some non-mathematical fashion. (58)This is directed against the rationalists of the eighteenth century and the whole notion of symmetrically arranged order founded upon non-mystical empirical or logical reasoning.When he writes in those famous lines which everyone knows:A Robin Red breast in a CagePuts all Heaven in a Ragethe cage of which he speaks is the Enlightenment; and that is the cage in which he and persons like him appeared to suffocate all their lives in the second half of the eighteenth century. (59)3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Intellectual adventure at its very best.By 3rd Day BelieverIve been examining Romanticism in its various guises for decades now; and this is simply the most fun and fascinating book on the subject Ive encountered. Mr. Berlin does a fine job of characterizing what I now choose to term "the counter-Enlightenment;" since there is no meaningful definition of Romanticism; as the author takes pains to point out. Because this volume is derived from a series of lectures; each chapter is relatively self-contained; and short--this book has the merit of being brief. Also because these are lectures; there are often passages which prompt laughter. The German view of Enlightenment Parisians? "Dessicated monkeys." For some of us; this is the real beach reading; whether youre on the beach or not.