Ibsen’s and Mrożek’s Peer Gynt

This essay compares Ibsen’s drama from 1867, Peer Gynt, with Sławomir Mrożek’s short story of the same title (published in Polish in 1958 and in English in 1962) through an examination of the absurdist tone present in both works. Mrożek is a preeminent literary figure in absurdist literature in Poland. He employs a direct allusion to Ibsen’s work in his title, but also reflects on Ibsen’s play and the character Peer in the themes, motifs, and techniques used throughout the short story. Ibsen’s Peer was a peasant in nineteenth-century Norway, while Mrożek’s Peer is congenially portrayed as a Polish para-communist with a peasant background.The intertextual reading is inspired by numerous allusions to other cultural texts and absurdist tone present in both works.