Approaches to Teaching Ibsen's A Doll House
Editor(s): Yvonne Shafer
Pages: xv & 139 pp.
Published: 1985
ISBN: 9780873524872
"Today the lively state of Ibsen production, the critical reappraisals of his work, and the availability of modern, colloquial translations afford us an unprecedented opportunity to study and appreciate Ibsen's A Doll House both on the stage and in print. The challenge for the instructor teaching the play is to bring the literary and theatrical dimensions together."
Yvonne Shafer, from the introduction
We are currently out of stock of the paperback edition of this title. The cloth edition will be substituted at the paperback price.
Since its publication over a century ago, A Doll House has often been narrowly read as a single-thesis play--as a commentary on women's rights. Recent scholarship and criticism, however, suggest multiple interpretations of Ibsen's most famous work; teachers of A Doll House can profit from these new perspectives and lead their students to an appreciation of many different aspects of the play.
The volume, like others in the MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, is divided into two parts. The first part, "Materials," analyzes the faults and merits of the many available translations of A Doll House and recommends background materials and supplemental readings for both teachers and students. The second part, "Approaches," samples many ways to teach the play in the classroom. The first three essays show how to incorporate the play into introductory courses on literature and composition; the following four essays focus on teaching the play in more advanced classes on dramatic literature. The remaining seven essays present specific strategies, such as using feminist approaches, examining performances of the play, and comparing A Doll House to Ibsen's other plays in a graduate seminar.
Table of Contents
Approaches to Teaching A Doll House
Introduction: Teaching All of A Doll House
PART 1: MATERIALS
Yvonne Shafer
- Editions and Translations
- Collections of Ibsen Plays
- Anthologies Containing the Works of Several Authors
- English Translations of A Doll House
- Thomas F. Van Laan
Required and Recommended Student Readings
Aids to Teaching
- The Instructor's Library
- Reference Works
- Background Studies
- Biographies and Critical Studies
PART 2: APPROACHES
Introduction
Introductory Courses in Literature and Composition
From Relevance to Critical Thinking: The Critical Difference
Lois More Overbeck
Ibsen in the Freshman Honors Course
Sverre Lyngstad
A Doll's House in a Community College
Joanne Gray Kashdan
Courses in Dramatic Literature
Teaching A Doll's House: An Outline
Otto Reinert
How to Get into A Doll House: Ibsen's Play as an Introduction to Drama
June Schlueter
Ibsen and the Well-Made Play
Cary M. Mazer
A Marxist Approach to A Doll House
Barry Witham and John Lutterbie
Feminism and A Doll House
A Doll House in a Course on Women in Literature
Katharine M. Rogers
Nora's Uncertainty
Irving Deer
Learning through Performing
The Opening Moments of A Doll's House: For Performance and Analysis in Class
J. L. Styan
Performance as Criticism: A Doll House Scene Work in the English Classroom
Gay Gibson Cima
Creating A Doll House from Life
David Downs
The Graduate Course
A Doll House; or, The Fortunate Fall
Brian Johnston
A Doll House in a Graduate Seminar
Richard Hornby
Works Cited
Index
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