Hedda Gabler: between territories

The aim of this paper is to provide a deleuzian analysis of Hedda Gabler, one of the most controversial feminine characters of Ibsen’s plays. Thus, using Gilles Deleuze’s concepts to interpret Hedda Gabler we can acquire a clearer perspective over the protagonist and her relationship to “territories” as sexuality, family or society, reconfiguring also the context in which she is living. The deleuzian lens enables us to offer a logical explanation of Hedda Gabler as a complex character, reconfiguring the context she belongs to and taking her out of the rigid imaginary of the paradox and of the absurd. Thus, Deleuze’s philosophy helps us understand better how Hedda Gabler determines in a certain way the ambiguity of the “territories” and how she influences/is influenced by it. Thus, this study represents a literary analytical exercise inspired by some of Deleuze’s concepts, more specifically deterritorialisation/territory, antigenealogy, rhizome, alliance and the plan of immanence, and is interested to see how they function in Henrik Ibsen’s play. Aspects as a character’s corporeality, the spatial structure and the irony contribute as well to a unified perspective regarding the different territorial forms analysed in the paper: sexuality, family, society, etc.