Chapter Eighteen introduces us to Scandinavian Romanticism, which helped Denmark, Sweden, and Norway imagine themselves as independent nations by drawing on Old Norse and medieval sources, contributing to a shared sense of identity. The chapter explores its origins in Mallet and eighteenth-century antiquarianism, drawing parallels with Ossian and Percy, and discussing Ewald’s Rolf Krage. It then looks at some of the defining features of Scandinavian ballads, including the figures of elf and shield maiden. Sweden’s loss of Finland led to an ‘Old Scandinavian’ turn in which the Viking became a common topos, as we discover in works by Tegnér and Wergeland. It also led to calls for a new mythology, answered among others by Ewald, Grundtvig, and Oehlenschläger. Other writers include the young Ibsen, who began his career with plays about Norse mythology, and Erik Gustaf Geiger whose stories idealise Nordic liberty. Fairy tales were also an important Romantic genre. Möller discusses the motif of the Isle of Felicity in works by Almqvist and Atterbom before turning to the characteristic features of Andersen’s tales. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of Scandinavian Romantic fiction, including male-authored historical romances but also domestic novels written by women that look towards realism.

Julia Listengarten assesses Chekhov’s theatrical revolution in the context of other major innovators of his time, including Ibsen, Strindberg, and Maeterlinck, presenting Chekhov not as an exponent of any movement but as a unique theatrical practitioner whose work resonated within a broader cultural moment.

This chapter traces the history of the critical reception of Ibsen in Japan which started in the Meiji period (1868–1912). It discusses Ibsen’s breakthrough in the late nineteenth century, Ôgai Mori’s novelistic reinterpretation of Ibsen’s individualism through a Confucian lens, Ibsen-inspired female characters in Sôseki Natsume’s novels, and gives an overview of the development of Ibsen’s position in Japanese theatre up to the present. The chapter also takes up a variety of modern Ibsen performance with Japanese twists, from a Noh-inspired Doll’s House and a female Dr Stockman, to the ever-popular Hedda Gabler whose problematization of the ‘calculated’ marriage strikes a chord with contemporary audiences. The chapter ends with some reflections on the evolving quality of translations, from ad hoc experimental translations via English and German in the Meiji period, to the present situation in which the reader can choose among a selection of skilful translations from the original Norwegian.

In nineteenth-century Scandinavia, philosophy was not merely an academic matter. Beyond a relatively small group of philosophy professors at the universities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, philosophical ideas saturated culture more broadly, including the theatre. Thus, the philosophical context of Ibsen’s drama must be understood historically and contextually. Of particular importance – albeit often overlooked in the scholarly literature – is modern philosophy of drama as it develops in the works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Gottfried Herder and the Sturm und Drang movement. Later, we see an interest in romantic philosophy, the works of Germaine de Staël and the idealist position of G.W.F. Hegel. Towards the end of the century, the ideas of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche featured centrally in Ibsen’s intellectual circles.

It is widely acknowledged that Ibsen was one of the most influential foreign authors in China in the twentieth century. His plays were initially introduced by Lu Xun and Hu Shi and then used as a model for the Spoken Drama. In the 1920s, there emerged a group of one-act modern plays composed in vernacular language and featuring heroines following in Nora’s footsteps, later called the ‘departure play’. Cao Yu and Tian Han were among the most prominent Chinese playwrights to consciously learn from Ibsen, especially in the early period of their dramatic careers. Ibsen was also an important source of inspiration for modern Chinese fiction in terms of characterization and theme. In addition, a neologism, ‘Noraism’, was invented to signify the huge impact that Nora once had on the liberation and independence of Chinese women. After the reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, Ibsen experienced another revival in China as his plays began to be widely discussed by new generations of scholars and actively adapted into different theatrical genres. Today, Ibsen still plays an important role in the cross-cultural encounters between China, Norway and the rest of the world.

‘Decadent theatre’ is not an established genre within British theatre studies. Barring Wilde’s Salomé, Maeterlinck’s Symbolist theatre had little impact on the British stage, though it strongly influenced the Irish theatre. Frequently applied to Ibsen as a term of abuse, ‘Decadent’ denoted plays that challenged social and moral conventions. Sensuality and sexual temptation became a staple within purportedly moral plays, and ‘fallen woman plays’ like Bella Donna (1911) and ‘toga dramas’ like The Sign of the Cross (1894–5) made box office gold. British avant-garde theatre was shaped by Bernard Shaw, who blended realism and theatrical extravagance into an alternative form of Decadent theatre. Shavian realism and social critique were key to the development of the British theatrical avant-garde, and ‘Decadent’ theatre thus took on different forms from on the Continent. The verbally extravagant, self-consciously theatrical comedies of Oscar Wilde produced one brand, whose legacy was the poised black comedies of Noël Coward and Joe Orton. Elizabeth Robins and Florence Bell, by contrast, pushed unrepentant realism to the point of awakening critics’ lurid imaginations.