Conclusion Chinese Ibsenism in the Politics of Global Literary Reception

Abstract

“In the West, it is almost impossible to find a dramatist of stature and under the age of forty who would profess to be an Ibsenite technically, but it is equally difficult to find anyone under forty who has not been influenced by Ibsen thematically.” This is an observation made by the British theatre critic Michael Billington in 1978. Thirty years later, in 2008, Toril Moi published her book Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism, in which she has placed Ibsen at the centre of influence over Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and James Joyce. Although Ibsen’s dramatic techniques and stage conventions have faded in the face of newer innovations, he is revered as the father of modern drama. In the theatre, Ibsen is still a most performed playwright of the twenty-first century and an all-time favourite for experimentation with new styles of performance and new interpretations of gender, femininity, self construction and deception.