Preface
Abstract
The diverse phenomena covered by the term globalization influence our world and our lives in it in innumerable ways. It may therefore come as no surprise that questions concerning the dissemination, crossing, communication and conflict between cultures have become more and more acute in our time. This has also led to a renewed questioning of the concept of culture itself. Where one previously often tended to discuss culture in terms of underlying unity and coherence, it has become necessary instead to stress the fact that culture is not a unified essence, but rather an organization of difference and diversity. Therefore one should perhaps stop talking about culture in the singular and instead always stress the fact that there is no unified culture, there are only cultures. This discussion has for some time now influenced Ibsen-research and this journal. In this issue the discussion of cultural aspects of Ibsen's texts and the performance of them on stage is taken one step further by Erika Fischer-Lichte. In her article on “Interweaving Theatre Cultures in Ibsen Productions” she sets out not only to discuss some seminal Ibsen productions but also to take on the larger issues of what culture-meetings are and