The Heibergs and the Theater
Between Vaudeville, Romantic Comedy and National Drama
Distributed for Museum Tusculanum Press
The Heibergs and the Theater
Between Vaudeville, Romantic Comedy and National Drama
Johan Ludvig Heiberg was one of the most famous playwrights, theater critics, and essayists of the Danish Golden Age, and his wife, Johanne Luise Heiberg, was one of its greatest actresses. This first book-length study in English examines the many ways they dominated theatrical life during the period. In these essays, the contributors explore the deep connections between the Heibergs’ far-reaching philosophical and political interests and their theatrical careers. More than just a study of Golden Age theater, this book offers an important look into the ideas and arts that constituted one of the richest eras in modern history.
269 pages | 10 halftones | 5 1/2 x 9 | © 2012
History: European History
Literature and Literary Criticism: Dramatic Works
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Heibergs and the Theater
Jon Stewart and Klaus Müller-Wille
Johan Ludvig Heiberg and the Theater: In Oehlenschläger’s Limelight
Finn Hauberg Mortensen
I. Theater and Politics
An Artist Among Rebels? Johan Ludvig Heiberg and the Political Turn of the Public Sphere
Lasse Horne Kjældgaard
Ghostly Monarchies—Paradoxical Constitutions of the Political in Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s Royal Dramas
Klaus Müller-Wille
The Danish Way to Fame and Power? Johan Ludvig Heiberg, Thorvaldsen and the Popularity of Art
Wolfgang Behschnitt
II. Theater and Philosophy
The Opera Hater? Johan Ludvig Heiberg and the Musical Theater
Joachim Grage
Heiberg’s Conception of Speculative Drama and the Crisis of the Age: Martensen’s Analysis of Fata Morgana
Jon Stewart
Kierkegaard’s Hidden Satire on Heiberg’s Poetics of the Vaudeville in Either/Or and Repetition
Mads Sohl Jessen
III. Theater and the Economy of Gender
Nina’s Madness: The Economy of Sentimentality in Heiberg’s Nina
Gunilla Hermansson
Theater and Modernity: Thomasine Gyllembourg’s Novella Near and Far
Joachim Schiedermair
The Ethics of Performance in Johanne Luise Heiberg’s Autobiographical Reflections
Karin Sanders
Index of Persons
Index of Subjects