AUGUST STRINDBERG (1849-1912)
Plays (good one)
(Strindberg Website)
(See Strindberg’s painting)
(good/more )
(S and Naturalism)
Plays:
1871The Outlaw
1878Master Olof
1881Lucky Peter's Travels
1887The Father
1888Comrades
1888Miss Julie
1888Creditors
1889Pariah
1898-1904 To Damascus (3 parts)
1899The Saga of the Folkungs
1899 Gustav Vasa
1899Erik XIV
1901 Easter
1901The Dance of Death
1902Kronbruden
1902A Dream Play
1907After the Fire
1907The Ghost Sonata
1909The Great Highway
Autobiography
The Confessions of a Fool. 1888; 1912.
Inferno. 1898; 1912.
Translations
Two recommended translations:
Sprigge, Elizabeth, trans. Twelve Plays. 1963.
Meyer, Michael, trans. The Plays of Strindberg. 1964--.
Criticism
Bellquist, John E. Strindberg As a Modern Poet: A Critical and Comparative Study. Rept ed. U of California P, 1986.
Bulman, Joan. Strindberg and Shakespeare. 1971.
Dahlstrom, Carl E. Strindberg's Dramatic Expressionism. 2nd ed. Ayer, 1972.
Johnson, Walter. Strindberg and the Historical Drama. 1963.
Lamm, Martin. August Strindberg. 2 vols. 1971.
Lucas, F.L. The Drama of Ibsen and Strindberg. 1962.
Mortensen, B.M. and B.W. Downs. Strindberg: An Introduction to His Life and Works. 1949.
Robinson, Michael. August Strindberg: His True Life? Norwich: Nrvik, 1986.
Smedmark, C.R., ed. Essays on Strindberg. 1966.
Sprigge, Elizabeth. The Strange Life of August Strindberg. 1949.
Stockwnstrom, Boran. Strindberg's Dramaturgy. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1988.
Waal, Carla. Harriet Bosse: Strindberg's Muse and Interpreter. Southern Illinois UP, 1990.
Bibliography On Miss Julie and Ghost Sonata
Hayes, Stephen and Jules Zentner. "Stindberg’s Miss Julie: Lilacs and Beer." Scandinavian Studies 45 (1973): 59-64.
Jarvi, Raymond. "Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata and Sonata Form." Mosaic 5.4 (1972): 69-84.
Meyer, Michael. Strindberg: A Biography. London: Secker & Warburg, 1985.
Mays, Milton. "Stindberg’s Ghost Sonata: Parodied Fairy Tale on Original Sin." Modern Drama 10 (1967): 189-194.
Napieralski, Edmund. "Miss Julie: Stindberg’s Tragic Fairy Tale." Modern Drama 26 (1983): 282-289.
Parker, Brian. "Strindberg’s Miss Julie and the Legend of Salome." Modern Drama 32 (1989): 469-484.
Parker, Gerald. "The Spectator Seized by the Theatre: Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata." Modern Drama 14 (1972): 373-386.
Templeton, Alice. "Miss Julie as ‘A Naturalistic Tragedy’." Theatre Journal 42 (1990): 468-480.
Young, Vernon. "The History of Miss Julie." Hudson Review 8 (1955): 123-130
A short biography: August Strindberg
See A short biography
"this long and boring walk trough the shadow land of memory"
August Strindberg was born in Stockholm in 1849. Strindberg was the third child of the shipping merchant Carl Oscar Strindberg and his former domestic servant Ulrika Eleonora Norling. Before he became a writer he studied at Uppsala university and worked as a librarian and journalist.He was a very productive author. He wrote novels, plays, poetry and over 7,000 letters! The collected works consists of 55 volumes. August Strindberg was also a very good painter. But he failed to make gold in spite of hard efforts.
1874 Strindberg is appointed assistant librarian at the Royal Library in Stockholm. His first major work, the play Master Olof, was written in 1877, but was not recognized until 1881. Strindberg’s breakthrough as a writer came with the novel The Red Room (1879).
In 1886 Strindberg completes the biografical novel The Son of a Servant , "this long and boring walk through the shadow land of memory" as Strindberg wrote.
Siri von Essen
"Siri I loved the most" / Marriages
In 1877 he marries Baroness Siri von Essen . Siri was seven months pregnant at the time of the marriage, the child died and they later had three children, Karin, Greta and the son Hans. 1888, living in Denmark, Strindberg writes the play Miss Julie, which is staged 1889 with his wife Siri von Essen in the title role. In "A Madman's Defense" Strindberg wrote about his first marriage, torn between adoration and contempt. After twelve years they divorce and Strindberg, not feeling appreciated in Sweden, moves to central Europe. After a couple of years of "artist life" with people like Edvard Munch and Gaughin he marries the young Austrian Frieda Uhl. After a stormy year travelling in Europe they divorce.
Tears of Joy
In 1895 the Inferno period starts. Strindberg gets interested in occultism and alchemy. He reads the Swedish philosopher Swedenborg. These years are described in, or rather are the base for the novels Inferno and Legends.1897 he moves back to Sweden, his recovery from the Inferno crisis is quick. After intensive work a few days in the spring of 1898 the first part of the play To Damascus is finished.
"Burst into tears several times today, wrote the end of Act 3", Stindberg notes in his diary. He was satisfied, the scenes and words came together brilliantly.
"I got her with child immediately."
In the Occult Diary, which Strindberg kept between 1896 and 1908, he summarizes his relation with his third wife Harriet Bosse.When I married Bosse I got her with child immediately. But she grudged me that great honour, and out of spite she went off with her unborn child. She alleged that I had deserted our bedroom, but the truth was that she had begged me to move, as pregnancy had given her a dislike for my person. She returned and the child was born. The next thing was that she did not want to have more children, but did want to continue "married life". This resulted in distaste and disgust. First we separated, then we got a divorce. After that we came together again and I became her lover, and still am. This then is the question, in what way have I failed? My reputation was restored, but is so no long, for her lies are enduring, in spite of all there is to confute them! At 50 I was no good as a husband, but at 58 I am good enough to be a lover! It is sublime! Sublime !!!"
From the "Occult Diary"
Strindberg kept his "Occult Diary" for more than ten years. The extract below is from 1908. He has divorced Harriet Bosse and she is planning to remarry with another man. But in Strindberg´s fantasy she still visits him, mostly at nighttime .April 20th.
This evening she came again, like roses, loving and full of longing.
Night came; she slept on my arm, but did not desire me until towards
morning, then ...
April 21st.
The whole morning, solely as roses. Later she disappeared! In the evening she returned, but went again. At night apathetic and calm until the morning, when she sought me ...
April 23rd.
A heavy day, spent in idleness. Slept much. Harriet away, but towards evening could feel her stretching for me below the chest.
!!Went to bed, grew calmer. No contact with Harriet during the night. I sought her but did not find her until 5 o´clock, ...
April 24th.
A glorius morning. Harriet was with me all forenoon, gentle, loving, like flowers in my mouth!
Is she literally two persons? And do I possess one? The better one?
That would seem to be the case, for when we meet or write we hate
each other. Is this possible?
Death
Finally Strindberg released himself from Bosse, quit the Occult Diary and moved to a new apartment. Now followed some very productive years with highlights such as the plays Easter and The Dance of Death.Strindberg died in May, 1912. His modest grave with just a wooden cross bears the Latin inscription:
O Crux Ave Spes Unica!
(O Cross, Be Greeted, Our Only Hope)
August Strindberg’s drawings
A new book on Strindberg as a painter and photographer at amazon.com
Strindberg: Painter and Photographer
See
A few drawings made by August Strindberg
This drawing is from a letter to the Swedish painterCarl Larsson.
On the drawing Strindberg has written:
"There was a damned lot of fucking among the hay-cocks"
Strindberg often was a bit frivolous in his language when writing to Larsson. When the book Married was published Strindberg wrote to C. Larsson:
"Against my usual habits I have read my book in print. I find it "seminal", it is like an honest and good copulation compared with Ibsen´s hysterical jerking off".
The authorities did not like this copulative style of prose and the book was prosecuted for violating paragraph three in the press-law, blasphemy against God or mockery of God´s word and the sacraments. But Strindberg won the trial.
Strindberg´s newspaper layout
Strindberg liked to spend the summer on this island in the Stockholm Archipelago.
"My flowerbasket in the sea" he called it. Strindberg had a lifelong passion for this blissed island
Taurus /
From the Occult Diary
Interview
August Strindberg asks himself
1. What is the main trait in your character?
This strange blending of the deepest melancholy and the most astonishing light heartedness.
2 Which characteristic do you prize most highly in a man?
Absence of narrow mindedness.
3. Which characteristic do you prize most highly in a woman?
Motherliness.
4. Which talent would you most like to possess?
To find the key to the world's mystery and the meaning of life.
5. Which fault would you least like to possess?
Narrow mindedness.
6. What is your favorite occupation?
To write dramas.
7. What would be the greatest happiness you could imagine?
To be nobody's enemy and to have no enemies.
8. What position would you most have liked to have?
To be a dramatist whose dramas were always being played.
9. What would you regard as the greatest misfortune?
To be without peace of mind and conscience.
10. Where would you most like to live?
In the Stockholm skerries.
11.Your favorite colour?
Zinc yellow and amethyst violet.
12.Your favorite flower?
Cyclamen.
13.Your favorite creature?
The butterfly.
14.Which books do you like most?
The Bible; Chateaubriand's Genie du Christianisme; Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia; Victor Hugo's Les Mise'rables; Dickens's Little Dorrit; Andersen's Fairy Tales; Bernardin de SaintPierre's Harmoni de la Nature. Kipling: various.
15.Which paintings do you like most?
Theodore Rousseau's "Paysages Intimes." Various.
16.Which musical compositions do you like most?
Beethoven's Sonatas.
17. Which English writer do you admire most?
Charles Dickens.
18. Which English painter do you admire most?
Turner.
19. Which male historical personages do you admire most?
Henri IV of France and Bernard of Clairvaux.
20. Which female historical personages do you admire most?
P;Elizabeth of I hŸringen and Marguerite de Provence (consort of Louis i.e. Holy).
21. Which historical personage do you most despise?
One has no right to despise anybody.
22. Which fictitious male characters most attract you?
Balzacs Louis Lambert: and the Bishop in Les Miserables by Victor
Hugo.
23. Which fictitious female characters most attract you?
Margaretha in Faust and Florence in Dombey and Son.
24. Which name do you like best?
Margaretha.
25. Which fault in others do you find it easiest to forgive?
Extravagance.
26. Which social reform would you most like to see accomplished?
Disarmament.
27. Your favorite drink and your favorite food?
Beer and fish dishes.
28. Which season and which weather do you like best?
The height of summer after warm rain.
29. Your motto?
Speravit infestis.
Strindberg
Strindberg was the complete artist who struggled for the form for his self-expression. He changed throughout his life, his views of life changed, and he had to find new forms to match these changes
Strindberg was anti-realism; he found realism prosaic, dull. He was influenced by Zola, Darwin, Nietzsche.
Strindberg: restless & experimental
--Transmutation: lit. into music
--alienated modern man
--Dream play: fantasy, delusion, nightmare; existential revolt
--Romantic rebel; psy. dualism
--Dionysian vitality
Naturalism:
A term used by Emile Zola to describe the application of the clinical method of empirical science to all of life. According to naturalistic philosophy, heredity and environment influence and determine human motivation and behavior. Thus, if a writer wishes to depict life as it really is, he or she must be rigorously deterministic in the representation of the characters' thoughts and actions in order to show forth the causal factors that have made the characters inevitably what they are. Substituting the scientific idea of determinism for the classical idea of fate, Zola argues for a literature of observation rather than one of fabrication. Although not all the early naturalistic works are harsh, many of them portray the experiences of impoverished and uneducated people, imprisoned perforce in a milieu of filth, squalor, and corruption. As a result, naturalism is often equated with the depressingly dreary slice-of-life documentation of irredeemable and brutal realities. Unlike realism, which also seeks to represent human life as it is actually lived, naturalism specifically connects itself to the philosophical doctrine of biological and social determinism, according to which human beings are devoid of free will. (Please see Realism.)
Realism:
A literary movement of the nineteenth century which sought to represent human experience and society in a way that seems true to life. The term may be extended to refer to any literature that aims for verisimilitude.
Realism and Naturalism (Please Consult
Study Questions onMiss Julie
- How does the story of Saint John the Baptist function in the play?
2. At the end of the play, Julie asks Jean to pretend he is the Count. What is the significance of this request in terms of the power relations in the play?
- Strindberg is known as a father of naturalism. Choose one formal element of Miss Julie (action, character, setting, etc.) and discuss how it might relate to Strindberg's understanding of the naturalistic theater and the subtitle of the play, “A Naturalistic Tragedy.”
- Miss Julie is designed with one single act without intermission and curtains. How does the play differ from Ibsen’s well-made plays in terms of the arrangement of climax, exposition and denouement?
- In his preface to the play, Strindberg describes Miss Julie as obsessed with animals. Discuss the functions of animals in the play.
- What kind of factors/ personality causes Miss Julie (and Jean) to the tragic end? Does Miss Julie lose for suicide and Jean win for survival in the end or vice versa?
- In what ways Julie and Jean compete and battle against each other over the issues of class and sexism? How does the battle associate with Darwin’s theory?
Naturalism: struggle between natural forces
quest for sig. heroine--polarilization of essential conflicts--life/death
Zola: French Naturalism--inner life; Strindberg: Psychologist & craftsman
Miss Julie(1889): closest to Naturalism Strindberg gets. The Ballet, mime, musical interlude, not Naturalistic. Neither is the compactness of the play.
--theme from a true story
--tragic pity for Julie's weakness fear-- us
"That my tragedy depresses people is their own fault."
--A Naturalistic tragedy ag. trad. morality & rel.
“survival of the fittest”
ballet, mime, musical interlude/ not Naturalistic/ not so impartial
--anti-emancipated women
--split sympathies-- pro aristocratic superman
servant/aristocrat [changing social processes]
Jean: sexual aristocrat / social slave
up rising cleanliness superior life
sex act falling dirt inferior death
down recurring dreams
idealist Julie: aristocrat father; common mother
unconscious impulses to dirt
Spirit to flesh
Materialist Jean: flesh to spirit
two views toward the sex act and honor
Act of expiation: Jean--judge & executioner
Julie, redeemed / last: degradation & her family
aristocrat, but dead
Jean: lived, but a servant
Strindberg: artistic, sexual, rel. conversion
Search for absolutes--back to relatives
Humanity, resignation, & understanding of conflicting positions
The Road to Damascus correspondences, not causes
1898-1909 2nd phase of career
Indra & Milkmaid--surrogates for Strindberg
technique: compact form & psy. detail gone
chamber play: a short episodic work--& an approximate music
Expressionism: expressions of Strindberg's unconscious
Dream plays: free form--like a dream
locations, vague; time, broken; allegorical names
*The change is in emphases
body/spirit
lust/love Strindberg to understanding
dirt/flowers
Miss Julie: Compressing Naturalistic form
Naturalism in 'Miss Julie' by Alison Smith Sept. 30, 1999
Writers involved in the naturalist movement believed that actors' lines should be spoken naturally, and that mechanical movements, vocal effects, and irrational gestures should be banished. A return to reality was proposed, with the old theatrical attitudes replaced with effects produced solely by the voice. There was a call to individualise characters, instead of generalising them, to produce characters whose minds and bodies would function as they would in real life. Strindberg's 'Miss Julie' has been said to be an excellent example of this movement, as it involves stress on multiple motivation of action; a departure from the stereotypical depictions of character; and random, illogical dialogue. Strindberg's naturalistic conception of theatre also extends to non-literary aspects of staging such as stage décor, lighting, and make-up.
Strindberg avoids the regularity of mechanical question and answer dialogue, instead allowing his dialogue to meander, encouraging themes to be repeated and developed over the course of the play. In the preface to the play, Strindberg explains that he has broken with tradition by avoiding "symmetrical, mathematically constructed dialogue." The sexual tension and hidden aggression in the first scene of 'Miss Julie' could be said to be an example of this, especially while the cook Christine is present with Julie and Jean to inhibit the expression of what they really mean. However, it is noticeable that Strindberg's sub-textual dialogue at the start of the play radically changes once the seduction is completed and there is no more to hide. It is then that the dialogue becomes explicit and ceases to meander. An excessively theatrical scene occurs at the point where Julie grows conscious of her humiliation, falls to her knees, clasps her hands, and cringes before Jean, who rises to stand triumphantly, and symbolically, over her. There is also the bluntly overt exchange of lines such as, 'Beast!' 'Menial! Lackey!' 'Menial's whore, lackey's harlot!' It has been proposed that this retreat to the characteristics of old theatricality is perhaps only redeemed in the last minutes, when the stage action becomes solemnly symbolic. The end of the relationship is represented by the decapitation of Julie's songbird; the sudden ring of the Count's bell introduces a character that has been silent throughout, present only in spirit. Jean places a razor in Julie's hand, and she walks out to her death in silence, as if in a hypnotic trance. Her death is not as melodramatic or theatrical as her previous behaviour, so this goes some way to compensate for earlier lapses.