Tzen Sam
Thesis Title: Recovering the female voice - Ibsen's early English translators
Supervisor: Prof. Kirsten Shepherd-Barr
Research interests: Victorian and modern literature, C20th and C21st drama, translation studies, theatre and performance studies.
Doctoral research:
My research focuses on the 'Ibsen battles' of the late-Victorian period when Henrik Ibsen's plays were first translated and performed in England. In particular, I consider the work of three women (Catherine Ray, Henrietta Frances Lord and Eleanor Marx) whose translations first introduced Ibsen to England. William Archer's subsequent project to canonise his translations of Ibsen as the authoritative English version have obscured the contributions of these women and consigned them to oblivion. Through close textual analysis of their pioneering translations, I reflect on what Luise von Flotow calls 'the phenomenon of the lost female translator' and assess the impact of this historical forgetting on the history of Ibsen's reception in England.
Publications
Journal articles:
Oct 2025 - 'Recovering the female voice: Eleanor Marx's translation of Ibsen's En folkefiende (An Enemy of the People)'. Ibsen Studies, Vol 25, Issue 2.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15021866.2025.2568313#d1e10...
Books:
Nov 2025 - Henrik Ibsen and Laura Kieler, A Doll's House, Men of Honour, and When We Dead Awaken. Oxford World's Classics. (Oxford: OUP) Translated by Gaye Kynoch. Co-edited with Kirsten E. Shepherd.
Other activities:
- I am the Research Assistant on the TORCH-funded collaboration between Professor Kirsten E. Shepherd and Breach Theatre to devise a play on Laura Kieler, the little-known model for Ibsen's A Doll's House. The forthcoming production, Burning Down the House, will be produced at the Schwarzman Centre in September 2026.
https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/my-name-is-laura-kieler-the-true-story-of-ibs...
https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/whats-on/burning-down-the-house-c7...
- Co-convenor of the TORCH Reimagining Performance Network (2022-2023)
- Co-convenor of the TORCH Scandinavian Studies Network (2024-2025)
