Exiles in the Grey Area

Exiles is a play about the artist as a speculator. This essay uses Franco Moretti’s interpretation of Henrik Ibsen as the dramatist of the “grey area” of finance capitalism to read Richard Rowan’s ethical manipulation of the play’s other characters. The play’s estrangement techniques, which are documented in its stage directions, Joyce’s preparatory notes, and Richard’s speculative ethical experiments, demonstrate this other dimension of Ibsenite affinity.