Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

photo from Britannica.com

• Born in Skein, Norway
  
• Lived his early life in poverty, stung by social rejection.
• Hired as a playwright by the National Theater in Bergen.
  
• Left Norway in 1862, starting a 27-year self-imposed exile. During this time he wrote his finest plays.
  
• "A literary pioneer who created the modern, realistic prose drama.”
  
• The bold, social commentary in his plays often earned him criticism.
  
• “A Doll’s House (1879) aroused controversy because it portrayed a woman whose actions were not considered acceptable at the time.”
  
• Ibsen was a revolutionary playwright who provided detailed stage directions that precisely described sets, lighting, props and how actors should interpret their lines.
  

Oscar Wilde Biography

1854: Born in Dublin

1900: Died of cerebral meningitis

1871-79: Attends Trinity College and Oxford

1881: Publishes his first volume of verse, Poems

1884: Marries Constance Lloyd; she has financial resources

1890: Serializes The Picture of Dorian Gray

1894: Writes The Importance of Being Earnest

In 1895 Wilde flaunts his friendship with Lord Alfred Douglas, drawing public criticism from Lord Douglas's father. Wilde sues for libel. Incriminating evidence that comes to light in cross-examination leads to Wilde's arrest for homosexual offenses/sodomy. After a hung jury on his first trial, Wilde is found guilty in a second trial. The sentence is two years of hard labor. He is bankrupted. In 1897 on his release from prison, Wilde goes into exile, where he lives under an alias, Sebastian Melmoth.

Margaret Atwood Background Information

Assignment: On page 4 of your notebook, "Margaret Atwood's Biography," jot down a few interesting facts about Margaret Atwood and respond to one of the quotations from the video clip of Bill Moyers PBS show Faith & Reason.

Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1939.

Atwood was raised a strict agnostic, and she believes atheism is a religion.

Her formal degrees are from the University of Toronto and Radcliffe College. She has also received 16 honorary degrees.

She is Canada's most eminent novelist and poet.

Her novels include strong women characters, and the books explore contemporary issues and sexual politics.

Her novels: The Edible Woman (1969); Surfacing (1973); Lady Oracle (1977); Life Before Man (1980); Bodily Harm (1982); The Handmaid's Tale (1986); Cat's Eye (1989); The Robber Bride (1993); Alias Grace (1996); The Blind Assassin (2000); and Oryx and Crake (2003),

The Handmaid's Tale film was released in 1990, and the book was recently staged as an opera.

For more information on Margaret Atwood, read her full biography at Contemporarywriters.com.

View this ten-minute clip of a Bill Moyers interview with Margaret Atwood to hear first-hand some of the political and religious beliefs that influenced The Handmaid's Tale.


After viewing the clip, respond in your journal to one of the following Atwood quotations from the video clip. Your personal response should be at least one full-paragraph. You may also wish to make connections between the quotation and films, books, and current events.

1. "When societies come under stress, these kinds of things happen. People start looking around for human sacrifices--for someone they can blame."


2. "In order to preserve our freedoms, we have to give them up for now."


3. "The theocracy that I put in The Handmaid's Tale never calls itself Christian. In fact, it never says anything about Christianity . . . . The slogans are all from the Old Testament."


4. "I believe in the America of Thoreau. Thoreau, the conscientious objector. Thoreau, the man who stood upon his principles."

Aldous Huxley Brief Biography

photo from somaweb.org

Aldous Huxley

British Novelist
1894-1963




Key facts:

• Grandfather and brother were biologists


• Educated at Eton and Oxford


• Nearly blind so learned Braille


• Published travel books, poems, novels, plays and essays


• Huxley’s style is known for its brilliant dialogue, cynicism, and social criticism.


• Brave New World, first published in 1932, is a dark vision of a highly technological future society.


• Married twice; had one son


• “Huxley scandalized millions” (Malcolm X)

Read more about Huxley on Wikipedia or at somaweb.org (a website devoted to exploring Huxley and his works complete with a discussion board).

To view a brief video of Huxley himself discussing Brave New World, click here.

Solzhenitsyn's One Great Heart

photo from gulaghistory.org


If you would like to read more of Solzhenitsyn's thoughts on World Literature, click here. If you scroll down to section 7 of Solzhenitsyn's lecture, you will find the excerpt we read from our textbook, "One Great Heart."

To learn more about Solzhenitsyn's life, visit the Nobel Prize Internet Archive.