Ghosts

"This edition of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts places the text within an evolving historical context that combines Ibsen's life, the social milieu and the playwright's association with the world of drama; this will help the reader gain a realistic view of the writer's endeavour. It has been the intention to acquaint the reader with theatrical developments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe for analyzing Ibsen's trajectory as a playwright. The Introduction, divided into various sections, gives the reader an overview of Ibsen's time. It includes socio-geographic details about Norway, the country to which Ibsen belonged and a discussion positioning Ibsen's realistic prose drama within the Modern Breakthrough Movement; one that arose out of radical changes in Europe generally and Norway specifically. Ghosts is Ibsen's scathing attack on religion and the institutions of family and marriage, challenging the bourgeois sensibility at the time. The volume contains ample material for use by the scholar and committed reader; it contains essays and analyses by a number of thinkers and critics such as George Bernard Shaw, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Raymond Williams, Joan Templeton, Ross Shideler, Mark Sandberg and Alexis Soloski. The volume has an essay by Anand Prakash meant to offer an Indian perspective on Ghosts. These will enable the reader to evolve her/his own distinct response to the play. PAYAL NAGPAL teaches English Literature at Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi. Her areas of interest are Modern Drama and Literary Theory."