AshehougAgency

"Life's Endless Riddle" Ibsen's Poetry and Drama

The insight, riddle and paradox of Ibsen’s poetry and drama appeal to people from every age and culture. Ibsen constantly circles around one key question: what does it mean to be a human being? This is the question which occupies Vigdis Ystad in "LIFE’S ENDLESS RIDDLE".

Ystad takes a look at Ibsen the thinker and poet, at his view of humanity and "the tragedy" in his works, and also at those demonic rebels - the bard’s powerful female characters. She also discusses Ibsen’s attitude to people of note like Sigmund Freud and Søren Kirkegaard, and to pictorial art.

In our modern ironic age, many are captivated by Ibsen’s irony. His impartiality is emphasised as well as the fact that he never provides unequivocal solutions to the conflicts the actors are playing out. Here it is not the irony that is highlighted, but rather the inquiry into revealing messages within Ibsen’s texts. As the author points out, Ibsen was not a writer who laid down rules or recipes for a good life ("I do but ask, my call is not to answer"). Nevertheless, Ibsen’s writings and plays are laced with opinions about humanity. Ibsen constantly returns to a central theme associated with the possibilities of being a unique human being, a self, an "I".

The author discusses material that concerns us all, and she does it in a way that kindles interest and provides food for thought. This thorough and highly sagacious book spares the reader a surfeit of technical terminology and argumentation. The author has the uncommon ability to make Ibsen both topical and generally accessible.

Vigdis Ystad is a professor of Scandinavian literature and Norway’s most highly esteemed Ibsen researcher. This book brings together a number of her articles and lectures that examine Ibsen’s writing from a number of perspectives.

Publisher: H. Aschehoug & Co (W. Nygaard) 1996
 ISBN: 82-03-17667-4
 219 pages, paperback