You will have a chance to
conduct a seminar on A Doll's House so we could learn more about the play and its reception.
You'll do this in pairs. Lots will be drawn, and the pairs and the seminars they'll have to conduct are the following:
Topic 1: Anastasia & Timo
Topic 2: Pradnya & Neel
Topic 3: Enes & Fred
Topic 4: Sithil & Steven
Your seminar must be research-based, i.e. that you are not to give your opinion but are instead to research the play and find out what others have said about it. Give the class a summary of some of the popular academic theories about the play. Your opinion should be of marginal importance.Use the following links to guide your research + any other that you find useful + the text of the play.Details:1: ContextWho was Henrik Ibsen? Where was the play written and under what circumstances? Are there any indications that we have about why Ibsen wrote the play and what he thought about it? Was the play well-received? Tell the class about the environment surrounding the writing and subsequent staging of the play. Do you think that Ibsen’s life had a part to play in his writing this piece? http://www.britannica.com/biography/Henrik-Ibsenhttp://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/goldman/aando/drama.html2: Characters
Nora, it has been said, is perhaps the first feminist ever to be written. Give the class a discussion of the character Nora in the play and a little bit about the background in which she was written. The idea of marriage would also be a good topic to discuss as well as the relationship between men and women.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/goldman/index.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43490/43490-h/43490-h.htm
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/goldman/aando/drama.html
https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/three-dimensional-ibsen-politics-feminis/id420879/
3: Reception of the play
It seems that Norway, and even the rest of Europe was not thrilled with A Doll’s House. Why?
http://www.nndb.com/people/829/000024757/
http://www.theatredatabase.com/19th_century/henrik_ibsen_001.html
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc5w2.htm
http://department.monm.edu/classics/Speel_Festschrift/urban.htm
http://academics.triton.edu/uc/files/dollshse.html#intro
4: The play as a whole
As the play was written so long ago, there have since been reinterpretations of it. Use the links below as starting points on how the play has been changed and re-appropriated for modern-day audiences and provide textual evidence when appropriate. It will be your job to tie together the three other presentations and add to them what you will.
http://exeuntmagazine.com/features/adollshouserevisted/
https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/articles/dolls-house-articles/gallery/ibsens-audience/
https://londonist.com/2015/06/a-stripped-back-interpretation-of-ibsens-a-dolls-house
https://www.artshub.com.au/2017/07/25/a-dolls-house-254128/
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2020/02/nora-doll-s-house-explores-ibsens-classic-three-different-contexts
https://searchingfornora.com/other-sequels-to-ibsens-a-dolls-house/
A Doll's House Part 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Doll%27s_House,_Part_2
(Credit for a considerable part of this webquest must go to the blogger at
http://dollshousewebquest.blogspot.com.ee/)
Full play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg0Ll77GZhk&t=4036s (2:14:09)
A little weekend fun just in case: A Lego House (A Doll's House reenacted with the help of Lego figures): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0uMV8CsiG0And some quizzes: http://www.shmoop.com/dolls-house/quizzes.html