What is a full life? Reflections on Ibsen and Literary Biography, and on Sverre Mørkhagen’s Ibsen: … “Den Mærkelige Mand”

Abstract

The main question concerning literary biography is, surely, Why do we need it at all? When an author has devoted his life to expressing himself, and, if a poet or a writer of fiction, has used the sensations and critical events of his life as his basic material, what of significance can a biographer add to the record? Most writers lead quiet lives or, even if they don’t, are of interest to us because of the words they set down in what had to be quiet moments. (Updike 1999)