Abstract
The influence of literary works in advocating the need for interventionism, a situation where the “civilized West” rescues other parts of the world from themselves – a people whose activities are supposedly characterized by savagery and barbarism – has inspired this research which will examine Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt in light of its supposed status as a satire on orientalism amongst other things. In an epoch where, according to Michel Foucault, discourse is not simply formal speech, but rather a pattern of statements which influences one’s cognition of the world, the position of the poet as the moral agent of society, especially in the nineteenth century, is crucial in this regard. By closely reading Ibsen’s text, I hope to see the position of the text, and by extension, the writer’s on Orientalism and colonialism from a postcolonial perspective, with Edward Said’s concept of contrapuntalism acting as a kind of meta-discourse through which findings will be interpreted. The end result of this research will not be limited to the affirmation or dismissal of Peer Gynt as a satire on Orientalism – neither will it be to merely prove the text could pass for a colonial discourse – rather, there will be an examination of the implication of my findings in current day Norway (and the world by extension) in relation to issues of inter/multiculturalism, race, and terrorism.