R E C O N S I D E R I N G N A T I O N A L
P L A Y S I N E U R O P E
Edited by Suze van der Poll
& Rob van der Zalm
Reconsidering National Plays in Europe
Suze vanderPoll Rob vanderZalm
Editors
Reconsidering
National Plays in
Europe
ISBN 978-3-319-75333-1 ISBN 978-3-319-75334-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75334-8
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Cover illustration: Alexander Mørk-Eidem’s staging of Peer Gynt, National Theatre.
Photo: Gisle Bjørneby, 2014
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Editors
Suze vanderPoll
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Rob vanderZalm
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In memory of our former professors Egil Törnqvist (1932–2015) and Rob
Erenstein (1939–2017)
vii
Though the concept ‘national play’ has since long been used to describe
plays such as Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, Herman Heijerman’s The Good Hope and
Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell, the term, different from for example ‘national the-
atre’, has not found its way into dictionaries. Neither has it been the object
for research in the academic world. Taking a closer look at use of the word
in descriptions in the aforementioned plays, shows it has been used to
indicate that these plays not only have been rooted deeply in the cultural
memory of respectively Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland, but—
over the course of time—have been regarded as representations of the
nation and its national identity.
This volume seeks to frame the concept of a national play, and examines
what qualies as a national play and how it functions over the course of
time in society, by providing an in-depth look into specic plays in eight
specic countries. The focus is on Europe, a continent with a rich theatri-
cal history, but also a continent in which national culture and national
identity have been object for contention and debate since long. The selec-
tion of the specic countries is motivated partly by the expertise of the
contributors, and partly by the editors’ wish to represent both ‘old’ and
‘new’, large and small nations from different European areas, EU and
non-EU, as well as dominant and recessive theatre cultures. The eight
countries presented are Germany/Die Räuber (Friedrich Schiller, 1781),
Switzerland/Wilhelm Tell (Friedrich Schiller, 1804), Hungary/Bánk Bán
(József Katona, 1819), Sweden/Gustav Vasa (August Strindberg, 1899),
Norway/Peer Gynt (Henrik Ibsen, 1867), The Netherlands/The Good
About the book
viii ABOUT THE BOOK
Hope (Herman Heijermans, 1900), France/Tartuffe (Molière, 1669). In
the last chapter, about Ireland, a cluster of plays is being analysed.
By closely examining the relation between those plays and the nation,
and the way stagings of these dramatic texts constitute, respond to, reect
and articulate changes in the imagination of national identity and the
nation-state itself, it is shown that theatre has undoubtedly retained its
ability to function successfully as a social platform for a nation’s self-
articulation. By providing (critical) reections on elements considered to
be ‘essential’ characteristics of a nation and its identity—such as landscape
and folklore—the plays examined here have over a longer period of time
stimulated an audience to re-consider and re-evaluate those characteris-
tics. Although we are perfectly aware that since the nineteenth century
theatre as an art form has lost its dominant position in society, and no
longer can be regarded as a mass medium, an analysis of the relation
between plays and nations can be helpful to a better understanding of
both these plays and national identity, especially so at a time when the
concept and future of the nation-state are being challenged and—at the
same time—re-considered.
ix
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Suze van der Poll and Rob van der Zalm
2 Schiller’s Die Räuber: “Der Ort der Geschichte ist
Teutschland” 21
Kati Röttger
3 Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell: TheNational Play ofSwitzerland? 53
Elke Huwiler
4 Bánk Bán: TheHungarian National Play 85
Krisztina Lajosi
5 Strindberg’s Gustav Vasa and thePerformance ofSwedish
Identity– fromCelebration toIntrospective Critique 119
Erik Mattsson and Egil Törnqvist
6 Peer Gynt: Norway’s National Play 155
Suze van der Poll
x CONTENTS
7 A (Dutch) Tale oftheSea: The Good Hope byHerman
Heijermans 185
Rob van der Zalm
8 Molière’s Tartuffe andFrench National Identity:
Reconguring theKing, thePeople andtheChurch 211
Matthijs Engelberts
9 Theatre asaMoral Institution: Twentieth- Century
Ireland 245
Joep Leerssen
10 Epilogue 267
Suze van der Poll and Rob van der Zalm
Index 273
xi
Matthijs Engelberts is Assistant Professor in the Department of
Romance Languages and Cultures at the University of Amsterdam and
specializes in modern and contemporary French literature and culture,
including its relations to other (national) cultures. He has published
extensively on Samuel Beckett, cinema and the relation of literature to c-
tion in other media, such as live performance. Engelberts is a member of
the editorial board of Samuel Beckett Today/aujourd’hui; member of the
advisory board of Journal of Beckett Studies (Edinburgh University Press);
and president of the executive board of Stichting Romanisten aan
Nederlandse Universiteiten (SRNU)
Elke Huwiler is Assistant Professor in the Department of German
Literature at the University of Amsterdam. She is the coordinator of the
interdisciplinary research group “Historical Theatre Research”. Her
research interests include mediality, performativity, media history and the-
ory, as well as intermedial narratology. Huwiler is currently doing research
in the eld of historical performance studies, specializing on 16th and
17th century Swiss Theatre.
Krisztina Lajosi-Moore is Assistant Professor in the Department of
European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a PhD in
cultural history from the University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation exam-
ined the role of operas in nation-building movements in East-Central
Europe. She is the coordinator of a research project supported by the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences exploring the transna-
tional ramications of European national styles in music. Her latest
notes on Contributors