Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828–1906)
Henrik Ibsen is Norway’s most important writer and one of the most influential dramatists of the second half of the nineteenth century. His dramatic production…
Henrik Ibsen is Norway’s most important writer and one of the most influential dramatists of the second half of the nineteenth century. His dramatic production…
The term ‘modernism’ is commonly used to describe some of the literary and cultural production of the early twentieth century in China, Japan, and Korea,…
Anne Charlotte Leffler was one of the most acclaimed Swedish women writers of the modern breakthrough in late 19th-century Scandinavia. Joining the circle known as…
Born in Edinburgh, William Archer served as a London theater critic from 1881 to 1920. He retired from weekly reviewing when his melodrama The Green…
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson is one of the most important Scandinavian writers of the second half of the 19th century, a novelist and playwright as well as…
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1862, Elizabeth Robins established herself in the American theater and then relocated to London in 1888. She epitomizes the grasp…
Jiyū-gekijō [Free Theater], founded in 1909 by the director Osanai Kaoru (1881–1928) and kabuki actor Ichikawa Sadanji II (1880–1940), was established to produce contemporary realist…
Known mainly for her prose fiction of the Decadent period, the French writer Rachilde contributed to modernist theater in a number of ways. She was…
Founded in Berlin in 1886 by Samuel Fischer, S. Fischer Verlag quickly became one of the most important publishing houses of German and European modernism.…
The Modern Breakthrough is a category of literary history first used in 1883 by the Danish critic Georg Brandes. Brandes used it to group together…
Born Alfred Kempner, Alfred Kerr is remembered as one of Germany’s most important theatre and film critics and as a writer with literary ambitions who…
August Strindberg is Sweden’s most important writer and one of the most influential dramatists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Along with Henrik…
The Danish literary critic Georg Brandes is known as the force behind the modern breakthrough in Scandinavian literature in the late 19th century. Inspired by…
Nella Larsen was an American novelist active in the 1920s and one of the central figures of ‘Manhattan modernism.’ She is best known for two…
Rebecca West was a novelist, journalist, essayist, and travel writer, and a central figure in twentieth-century literary and political culture. Her The Return of the…
Vlastislav Hofman was an architect, graphic artist, and stage designer who gave shape to Czech Cubist architecture and avant-garde stage design. In his early career…
The Independent Theatre Movement in Europe was a primary shaping influence on modern dramatic literature and theatrical modernism. These small independent theaters were committed to…
Young Vienna was an informal, heterogeneous literary circle that existed in Vienna for little more than a decade, beginning in approximately 1890. Hermann Bahr and…
Although some official has organized the acting and scenery in theatrical performances since ancient Greece, the director only emerged as a significant creative figure in…
Satyajit Ray was an Indian filmmaker, writer, music director, and illustrator, considered among the greatest auteur-directors of 20th-century cinema, along with the likes of Akira…
Born Félix Rubén García Sarmiento in Metapa, Nicaragua in 1867, Rubén Darío is largely considered the father of ‘modernismo’ in Latin America. This poet, essayist…
Yosef Hayim Brenner was born in 1881 in Novi Mlini, in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Like many Hebrew and Yiddish writers of his generation,…
Herman Joachim Bang was a Danish author, journalist, lecturer and theater director. He was born on the island of Als near the site of the…
Gregorio Martínez Sierra was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theater director who played a key role in the Spanish theatrical avant-garde and the development of…
Although he wrote little of artistic merit himself, Edward Garnett was very influential on British modernism. Like Ezra Pound, Garnett had an uncanny ear for…