Biting the sour apple: The Nietzschean undertow in Little Eyolf

Abstract/Description

Against the grain of traditional Ibsen criticism, this essay argues that the poetics of Little Eyolf is grounded in Ibsen’s keen understanding of Nietzsche’s writings – particularly The Birth of Tragedy and Beyond Good and Evil. While resisting the temptation to treat the play as ‘dramatised Nietzsche’, the author treats the play as a profound theatrical exploration of the challenge of Nietzsche’s thought. The article also looks at Hedda Gabler within this Nietzschean perspective, pointing up some of the implications for modern productions of these plays.