FALLING MEN: AN INTERTEXTUAL MOTIF IN IBSEN’S PROSE AND DRAMATIC WRITING
FALLING MEN: AN INTERTEXTUAL MOTIF IN IBSEN’S PROSE AND DRAMATIC WRITING

Summary/Abstract: Falling Men. An Intertextual Motif in Ibsen’s Prose and Dramatic Writing. The article is about Henrik Ibsen’s enigmatic play, The Masterbuilder (1892), which is being read and interpreted via two Ibsen prose texts; his first letter to George Brandes (1867), and his autobiographic fragment, “Childhood Memories” (1881). In the play, as well as in the texts, a strange, dramatic, deadly fall occurs. A closer investigation of the tragic events shows that falling is related to guilt in all the cases. The tandem reading of the play and the prose texts shows the recurrent motif of “edge” situations in his authorship, and presents another reading of the ending of The Masterbuilder.

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