AUGUST STRINGBERG (1849-1912)

Like Ibsen, Strindberg's playwriting career can be divided into stages:
1] Historical/Romantic,
2] Realistic/Naturalistic,
3] Visionary/Expressionistic.
But these divisions are arbitrary at best. He returned to historical subjects throughout his career and was constantly revisiting, experimenting with and re-inventing these merely literary styles. He explored the enigmas of the Universe and those of dramatic form. His life and work represent the "plight of modern man" as richly as any modern figure.

He began writing plays in 1870 which were essentially based on Swedish history. Then, in the 1880's and '90's, Strindberg went to Paris where he was very much a part of the Parisian cultural scene. He visited Antoine; He listened as the cognoscienti talked much of rebelling against Scribean intrigue in favor of simplicity of form and psychological analysis. Around 1883 Strindberg encountered Zola's essays and found a new focus. True to form, Strindberg did not blindly follow Zola, but took his as his inspiration. Where Zola was influenced by Bernard's classic Introduction to Experimental Medicine, Strindberg was most influenced by Charcot and Bernheim's studies of hypnotism and the power of suggestion. The new enthusiasm for naturalism yielded The Father (1887), Miss Julie (1888), Comrades (1888) and Creditors (1889). But the restless Strindberg wanted to go still deeper. "To me falls the task of bridging the gap between naturalism and supra-naturalism by proclaiming that the latter is only a development of the former."

Strindberg looks back to the Romantics. He is Romantic in the vulgar sense of expressing passion quite openly, quite toweringly, and pushing it to an extreme and even to an eccentricity. He is romantic in the deeper sense of trying not only to recognize the magnitude of the passions, but also to discover their proper status. He did this through a process of ruthless introspection. In himself he recognized two kinds of love-eros and agape-human and divine-sexual and sacred, and like the Romantics, he saw in himself ambivalence. Some see Strindberg in this as a precursor of Freud. Stress on ambivalence, the sense of the subterranean, and the intellectual analysis of these is pure Romanticism. Freud gave us documentation of this approach and Strindberg gave us not only the most circumstantial case history but the ultimate Romantic self-analysis along Freudian lines.

Indeed, with Strindberg-as in a few other modern writers (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, at times O'Neill)-life and work, life and art are as one.

Thus, Strindberg's work marks a transition from the 19th to the 20th Century.

Chronology of Strindberg's principal plays:
Mäster Olof (Master Olaf) 1872/1880
Gillets hemlighet (The Secret of the Guild) 1879-80
Lycko-Pers resa (Lucky Per's Journey) 1881-2
Herr Bengts hustru (Sir Bengt's Wife) 1882
Fadren (The Father) 1887
Kamraterna (Comrades) 1888
Fröken Julie (Miss Julie) 1888
Fordringsägare (Creditors) 1889
Paria (Pariah) 1889-90
Den Starkare (The Stronger) 1889-90
Samum (Simoon) 1889-90
Himmelrikets nycklar (The Keys of Heaven) 1890-2
Debet och kredit (Debit and Credit) 1892
Första varningen (The First Warning) 1892
Inför döden (In the Face of Death) 1892
Moderskärlek (Motherlove) 1892
Bandet (The Bond) 1892
Leka med elden (Playing with Fire) 1892
Till Damaskus I-II (To Damascus Parts I-II) 1898
Advent (Advent) 1898
Brott och brott (Crimes and Crimes) 1898-9
Folkungasagen (The Saga of the Folk Kings) 1899-1900
Gustav Vasa 1899
Erik XIV 1899
Gustaf Adolf 1899-1900
Dödsdansen (The Dance of Death) 1900
Kronbruden (The Crown Bride) 1900
Påsk (Easter) 1900
Till Damaskus III (To Damascus, Part III) 1901
Engelbrekt 1901
Carl XII (Charles XII) 1901
Svanevit (Swanwhite) 1901
Kristina (Queen Christina) 1901
Ett drömspel (The Dream Play) 1902
Gustaf III 1902
Näktergalen i Wittenberg (The Nightingale of Wittenberg) 1903
Oväder (Stormclouds) 1907
Brända tomten (The Burned Site) 1907
Spöksonaten (The Ghost Sonata) 1907
Pelikanen (The Pelican) 1907
Svarta handsken (The Black Glove) 1908-9
Siste riddaren (The Last Knight) 1908
Abu Casems tofflor (Abu Casem's Slippers) 1908
Riksföreståndaren (The Regent) 1908
Bjälbo-Jarlen (The Earl of Blälbo) 1908
Stora landsvägen (The Great Highway) 1909