Ibsen is generally regarded as the creator of modern drama or, more particularly, social realist drama. At the beginning of his dramatic career he had written plays in verse, often on rather grandiose themes, but in the latter half of the 1870s he began writing plays in prose on contemporary subjects, with characters and situations being drawn from modern life.
Ghosts(1881) was the third of these realist plays in prose, following
Pillars of Society(1877) and
A Doll's House(1879). It probably provoked a more extreme reaction from critics than any other play when it was produced in London in 1891. What makes these plays landmarks in the history of drama is that contemporary issues and problems were placed at the centre, in contrast to serious drama of the past which generally avoided any…
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Citation: Newton, Ken. "Gengangere". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12785, accessed 25 April 2024.]
