The Cambridge Companion to August Strindberg
The Cambridge Companion to August Strindberg
August Strindberg is one of the most enduring of nineteenth-century dramatists, and is also an internationally recognised novelist, autobiographer, and painter. This Companion presents contributions by leading international scholars on different aspects of Strindberg's highly colourful life and work. The essays focus primarily on his most celebrated plays; these include the Naturalist Dramas, The Father and Miss Julie; the experimental dramas with which he created a true modernist theatre – To Damascus and A Dream Play; and the Chamber Plays of 1908 which, like so much of his work, exerted a powerful influence on much later twentieth-century drama. His plays are contextualised for what they contribute both to the history of drama and developments in theatre practice, and other essays clarify the enormous importance to these dramas of his other work, most notably the autobiographical novel Inferno, and his lifelong interest in science, the occult, sexual politics, and the visual arts.
- Includes a detailed chronology which maps Strindberg's writing against events in his life, assisting readers in understanding the complex interplay of autobiography and fiction in his works
- Places Strindberg's major, familiar dramatic works within the context both of his other writings and the period during which he lived
- The first volume in English to present a complete overview of Strindberg's life and works
Reviews & endorsements
'This is a high-calibre, manageable collection of essays.' Laura Silverman, WhatsOnStage.com
Product details
September 2009Paperback
9780521608527
226 pages
228 × 152 × 11 mm
0.38kg
10 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Chronology
- List of Strindberg's works in Swedish and English
- Part I. The Biographical and Cultural Context
- 1. August Strindberg: the art and science of self-dramatization LINDA HAVERTY RUGG
- 2. Strindberg and the woman question MARGARETHA FAHLGREN
- Part II. The Works:
- 3. Learning to speak: Strindberg and the novel ULF OLSSON
- 4. The Son of a Servant and the autobiographical fictions PER STOUNBJERG
- 5. Miss Julie, naturalism, 'The Battle of the Brains', and sexual desire ROSS SHIDELER
- 6. Strindberg and comedy HANS-GÖRAN EKMAN
- 7. Crisis and change: Strindberg the unconscious modernist GÖRAN STOCKENSTRÖM
- 8. A modernist dramaturgy: A Dream Play and The Dance of Death ESZTER SALCZER
- 9. The chamber plays LYNN R. WILKINSON
- 10. The history plays MATTHEW H. WIKANDER
- Part III. Performance and Legacy:
- 11. Strindberg in the theatre FREDERICK AND LISE-LONE MARKER
- 12. Bergman's Strindberg EGIL TÖRNQVIST
- 13. Strindberg and modern drama: some lines of influence FREDDIE ROKEM
- Bibliography.
