The Mystic and Modernity: Unfolding Past and Present in Emperor and Galilean

Abstract

This issue of Ibsen Studies presents two pieces of original research on Ibsen that respectively represent the predominant scholarly traditions within the field, close textual analysis and performance history. Yet both authors, who are both emerging scholars based in Norway, break new ground in their choice of subject material. In “The Mystic and Modernity: Unfolding Past and Present in Emperor and Galilean,” Gerd Karin Omdal draws attention to the character Maximus, who is both mystic and philosopher and thus seemingly at odds with the exploration of modernity that the play is known for. Picking up from previous readings of the play that rule out the possibility of an unambiguously Christian and/ or idealist interpretation, Omdal focuses her attention on the role played by Maximus in conceptualizing the so-called “third empire” that would synthesize opposing pre-Christian and Biblical world views into something new. Whereas other scholars have placed primary emphasis on the philosophical tradition connected to Maximus, Omdal turns her attention instead to Maximus as mystic, contextualizing him within Neoplatonic and occult traditions. She argues that a synthesized understanding that encompasses both the philosophical and the mystical components of the character is necessary. In this, Omdal reflects a growing trend within the field of Scandinavian studies that seeks to examine the nineteenth-century fascination with the occult as an influential cultural phenomenon of the era, without in any way reproducing or espousing its pseudo-scientific beliefs. This is a welcome contribution because it opens up aspects of the text that have been ignored, perhaps because of a certain academic squeamishness or unwillingness to take such matters seriously as influential (if clearly misguided) cultural developments.