Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Morel and the rise of degeneration discourse -- Marriage, family, and incest -- Disease, diathesis, and syphilis -- Energetic economy and the “fixed fund of energy” theory -- What does Ibsen do with degeneration discourse? -- A note on the form and scope of the book -- 1 The Rot of the Bourgeois Body: Ghosts (1881) -- Ibsen’s commentary on Ghosts -- The raising of bourgeois children -- Class, health, and sex -- Bourgeois patriarchy and Helene’s independence -- Alving’s decline and fall -- Osvald’s energetic inheritance -- Regine and regeneration -- 2 The Fall of the Old Order: Rosmersholm (1886) -- Hvide heste and its relationship to Rosmersholm -- Rosmer, Kroll, and the fall of the old order -- Marriage as the scene of threats to the social fabric -- Strength and weakness of will -- Brendel and the forces of entropy -- The useless deaths of Rosmer and Rebekka -- 3 Dominance and Deviance: Hedda Gabler (1890) |