The Project
Introduction
A new complete historical-critical and commented edition of Henrik Ibsen's writings, printed and unprinted, is in progress. It will comprise plays, poems, articles, lectures, letters, drafts and notes.
Henrik Ibsens skrifter is to date the largest editorial project in Norway. It is financed by The Research Council of Norway in co-operation with the universities of Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø, The Sør-Trøndelag University College, and The National Library of Norway. The publication of the resultant edition is financially supported by The Arts Council Norway and The Norwegian Archives, Libraries and Museums Authority. Directed by Professor Vigdis Ystad, the project has a staff of scholars from the two Universities of Oslo and Trondheim and The National Library, as well as several research assistants. In addition, a number of specialists will provide commentaries in their areas of expertise. Begun in 1998, the editorial work is expected to extend over a ten-year period. The first volumes of the printed edition were ready by the centenary
of the playwright's death in 2006.
The edition will be published both electronically and in book form. The book edition will consist of 30 volumes: fifteen volumes of text and fifteen volumes of commentaries.
International Significance
Of all Norwegian authors, Henrik Ibsen has attained the greatest international circulation. His works are performed on stages worldwide, read in numerous translations, studied and researched on every continent of the world. The country of Ibsen's native tongue has a special obligation to provide a scholarly edition with reliable texts and detailed commentaries. The new Ibsen-edition will become the standard reference text for all readers of the Norwegian language. With its documentation of the relation between the literary work and its circumstantial conditions, this edition will also help translators in the task of recreating the contents and rich associations found in Ibsen's language.
Background
For some time, Norwegian and international Ibsen scholars have expressed the wish for a new scholarly edition of Henrik Ibsen's writings. The plans for an edition conforming to modern philological standards were strongly encouraged at the International Ibsen Conference in Grimstad, Norway in 1993. In the following years, the plans were developed at several meetings and seminars by Ibsen scholars and editorial philologists with experience from similar projects.
Financing
In 1997 The Research Council of Norway agreed to support the project financially for the period 1998–2007. With contributions from a number of co-operating institutions, this grant made it possible to start the work in April 1998, and then, in the following year, to run the project with the complete staff of commentators, research assistants, and specialists in text encoding. Efforts are still being made to secure full funding of the project.
The Edition
All of Ibsen's texts will be published after careful study of manuscripts and extant editions dating from the playwright's lifetime. Wherever possible, the first printed edition will constitute the basic text. The final printed edition will include a limited apparatus of variants, whereas the electronic version will incorporate all variants in full.
Introductions to the texts will provide descriptions of manuscripts and editions and information concerning the genesis of the texts, publishers, sales figures and royalties, genre, stage performances, music etc.
As distinct from the standard edition at present in use, the so-called Hundreårsutgaven (Centenary Edition, 1928-56), all texts will be supplied with commentaries on topics and terms. For example, terms that now have meanings or associations at variance with what they had in Ibsen's time will be accounted for, as will quotations and references in the text. The commentaries will be provided with an international readership in mind
The printed edition of Henrik Ibsens Skrifter will appear with text and commentary in separate volumes. It will be possible to buy single volumes or a part of the edition. The editors consider design and materials important, and intend that this edition should be an outstanding example of the craft of bookmaking in Norway.
In addition to the texts, introductions, and commentaries [x] in the printed edition, the electronic edition will include transcriptions of all known manuscripts and all printed versions from Ibsen's lifetime, as well as transcribed scores of Ibsen's musical dramas and compositions for his poems. His entire textual production, from the first word on paper to the last printed edition before 1906, is to be documented. The electronic texts will be encoded with a view to a wide range of search, allowing the user to move back and forth between various stages of a work's genesis. Pointers to secondary literature will be installed.
The data base is planned to contain digitalized pictures pertaining to the playwright and his work. There will also be links to facsimiles of all known manuscript material in Ibsen's hand, and to his own drawings and paintings.
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