An Enemy of the People: Ibsen's Reluctant Comedy

Authors

Harold C. Knutson, The University of British Columbia

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the essay follows:

That An Enemy of the People embodies notable comic elements few Ibsen specialists would contest. However, that the play may be a full-fledged comedy and informed by an integrated comic vision-here mainstream Ibsen scholarship is likely to balk. Everyone is in agreement of course as to the truculent social satire that pervades the work from beginning to end. As with the earlier League of Youth (1868-69) and to a lesser extent The Pillars of Society (1877), Ibsen exposed with malicious delight the underside of political life in small-town coastal Norway.

Recommended Citation

Knutson, Harold C. (1993) "An Enemy of the People: Ibsen's Reluctant Comedy," Comparative Drama: Vol. 27: Iss. 2, Article 1.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol27/iss2/1