sign in sign up
<<
Home , August Strindberg, Frida Uhl, Harriet Bosse, Julie (opera), Master Olof, Play Strindberg

facts about | sweden.se P h o P h o t t o: N ordi s k o: S t rind b er gs mu s ee o: a mu s ee t

August Strindberg: self-portrait from Gersau, , 1886. Jealousy Night, painted by Strindberg in Berlin, Germany, 1893.

August Strindberg: ‘I’m a devilish fellow who can do many tricks’

A hundred years after his death, August Strindberg (1849–1912) continues to fascinate. He was a trailblazer and innovator in his time and still manages to provoke audiences in theaters around the world.

There is always an aspect of Strindberg’s everyday language, and today his texts led. His literary development largely fol- – from the raging sociopoliti- feel remarkably modern. lowed the twists and turns of his private cal polemicist to the psychologically life, including the crises arising from his introspective writer – that fits the prevail- Man of many talents marriage break-ups and political contro- ing spirit and intellectual climate of the People are amazed by Strindberg’s ver- versies. times. His thoughts on morality, class, satility. He tackled most genres. Aside power structures and familial politics from being an innovator in and Upbringing and studies are still relevant today. The unflagging prose, he was a poet, a painter, a pho- Johan August Strindberg was born on struggle for free thinking and free speech tographer, even a sinologist. 22 January 1849. He would later claim that he waged throughout his life is more Strindberg’s stormy private life also that his childhood was one of poverty important than ever in a time when cen- explains his enduring appeal, especially and neglect but the family was not poor. sorship prevails in many countries. since it is so integral to his work. His father was a shipping agent who Another reason for Strindberg’s popu- it is difficult to separate Strindberg’s married his housekeeper. They had larity is his accessibility. While some life from his work. He believed a writ- eight children. Strindberg’s mother died older literature can feel dated, he used er’s work reflected the life the writer young, and relations with his father „ facts about sweden | August Strindberg sweden.se P h o t o s : S t rind b er gs mu s ee

The women in Strindberg’s life (from left): -Swedish actress , who became Strindberg’s first wife (1877–91) with whom he had two daughters and a son; Austrian journalist , his second wife (1893–97) and the mother of his daugh- ter Kerstin; and Swedish actress , his third and final wife (1901–04), photographed with their daughter Anne-Marie.

„ were strained. After a violent quarrel in Following the publication of his with- came interested in the natural sciences 1876, father and son never saw each ering satire The New Kingdom (1882), and . other again. reactions were so hostile that Strind- Following graduation from senior high berg was forced to leave Sweden. So Return to Sweden school in 1867, Strindberg led a nomadic began a period of exile, with Strind- After the Inferno crisis, Strindberg life. He worked as a school teacher and berg and his family moving around achieved a more peaceful state of mind tutor, studied medicine, tried to become Europe. The scandals back home mul- and returned to Sweden. He married for an actor – all to no avail. At tiplied; following the publication of his the third time, the actress Harriet Bosse. University, where he studied on and off, short story collection Getting Married The marriage was brief; soon after the people found him insufferable given his (1884-86), he was charged with blas- birth of their daughter, Anne-Marie, in constant desire to antagonize teachers. phemy. Strindberg was acquitted, but 1902 the couple separated. In 1907, However, he was considered to have the experience made him increasingly Strindberg launched the Intimate Theater promise as a writer. He worked for a mentally unstable and paranoid. in together with the actor while as a journalist at Dagens Nyheter, Strindberg’s persecution complex August Falck. He returned to writing so- Sweden’s largest morning newspaper, also consumed his marriage which had cial criticism and got caught up in what and as an assistant librarian at the Royal become increasingly strained. Strind- became known as the Strindberg Feud. Library in Stockholm. berg’s marital crisis coincided with the (See page 4.) it was around this time that he met Siri rise of the women’s movement, and von Essen, his first wife. She was a mar- this most likely is partly the basis for Illness and death ried, upper-class Swedish-speaking Finn his scornful view of women. During the final years of his life, Strind- with acting ambitions. Their love was berg lived in an apartment in central stormy, veering between lust and hatred. The Inferno crisis Stockholm that is now a museum. The After many ups and downs, the couple Strindberg divorced in 1891 and actress Fanny Falkner, his last great love, married in 1877. moved to Berlin, where he embarked lived in the same building. On 14 May on a brief marriage to the Austrian 1912, August Strindberg died, prob- Literary breakthrough and exile journalist Frida Uhl. The couple had ably of stomach cancer. Some 60,000 In 1879, Strindberg’s satirical novel a daughter but soon separated, and people joined his funeral procession. The Red Room was published. It was his Strindberg moved to . There he The newspapers that had once been so literary breakthrough. Encouraged by entered a period of his life in which he critical of him now ran glowing obituar- this success, he continued to write, and was tormented by invisible enemies ies – an irony of fate for a writer who had his works often attacked the authorities and hallucinations, the so-called Infer- spent his entire life opposing the estab- in Sweden. no crisis. During this time, he also be- lishment. n 2 | facts about sweden | August Strindberg sweden.se P h o t o: Gomer S waho: n

An outdoor production of The People of Hemsö, Strindberg’s own adaptation of one of his most widely read books.

Strindberg’s literary legacy Over four decades, Strindberg wrote some 120 works, about half of them plays. He also wrote a large number of newspaper articles, scientific essays and thousands of letters.

Strindberg is best known as a dramatist, Several of Strindberg’s plays were first marked, ‘I must be a European first before with his plays still performed on stages performed in , Germany and my word will count in Sweden!’ around the world. For instance, a major Austria. It was only after the German- Strindberg considered his plays his Strindberg festival was held in China in speaking countries had embraced him most important means of expression. He 2005, and in the summer of 2011 his play that began to show an interest. wrote some 60 plays in different genres The Pelican was performed in Beijing. Strindberg was a cosmopolite. He and styles. No other playwright over the Strindberg’s plays have influenced spent a third of his life in Germany, past 100 years has been as innovative in writers and directors including Edward France, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria as many different genres. Albee, , , where he was able to absorb intellectual Eugene O’Neill and , to trends. A number of his works were origi- Historical name but a few. nally written in French. As Strindberg re- Most of Strindberg’s earliest efforts were „ P h o t Painting and photography S t rind b er gs mu s ee o: Strindberg expressed himself in Swedish archipelago. His works explored photojournalism, more than words. His creativity became darker over time, with the made cloud studies and ex- also encompassed painting and open sea a recurring theme. perimented with color pho- photography. He painted exten- tography. Today there are on- As a teenager Strindberg devel- sively during several periods of ly about 60 Strindberg photos oped an interest in photography, his life. For a while he even tried in existence. at first as a purely scientific -ex to make a living from painting periment but then with more pur- while based in Paris. He tended Strindberg dressed as a Russian pose and bolder ideas. He took to focus on nature, especially the pictures of himself and his family, nihilist, self-portrait, Gersau, Switzerland,1886.

3 | facts about sweden | August Strindberg sweden.se

THE STRINDBERG FEUD P h o t o: S t rind b er gs mu s ee o:

In 1910, Strindberg started one of the biggest cultural debates Sweden has ever seen, the Strindberg Feud. It started out as an attack on the prevailing literary powers. What was initially purely a literary debate soon moved on- to suffrage, national defense and the role of the Swedish Academy. The Strindberg Feud lasted for more than two years and still had not ended with Strindberg’s death in 1912.

TAKING ON STRINDBERG Danish actress Ghita Nørby (1935–)

‘We’ve performed The of Death for over a year now and have had 136 sold-out houses. That’s a long time to dance with Strindberg with Karin, Greta and Hans, three of his children from his first marriage, in Strindberg. He’s incredibly diffi- cult. It’s like a test at the most ad- 1886. vanced level. He goes straight to historical dramas, a popular genre in the one-act play. He created the first natural- your soul, without mercy. Every „ performance night takes a little bit late 19th century and one he would ist drama with Miss and shocked of your heart. If you’ve played a return to many times in the course of his his contemporaries. In the preface, he set Strindberg role, you carry a piece writing. Shakespeare’s works were an forth the criteria for a naturalist play: the of it with you your entire life.’ influence, especially his psychologically drama should be unvarnished and close to French director nuanced characters. reality; there should be no fabricated plot, (1930–2010) After a few poorly received plays, in- no division into acts, no painted scenery; ‘The Dance of Death isn’t depress- cluding The Freethinker (1869) and In and the characters should be multidimen- ing at all. The play functions as a Rome (1870), Strindberg made his break- sional. cleansing bath for the audience. through as a dramatist in 1881 with the Strindberg’s naturalist dramas are im- It is the most clear-sighted of all first performance of , which bued with Darwinian and Nietzschean Strindberg’s dramas, and there’s he had reworked several times since he ideas – presenting a struggle between the a lot of bitterness and hate. But when we get to the end, it’s not as wrote it in 1872. For the , strong and the weak, and often between clear-cut anymore. influenced by Goethe among others, de- the sexes. In The Father, a wife tries to The last scene is very strange, cided to break with dramatic conventions make her husband believe he is mad, but I see it almost like a declara- which included writing in verse and a dec- while in Strindberg’s most frequently tion of love between the husband lamatory style of acting. Instead, he used staged play, , the power strug- and wife.’ a number of different settings and collo- gle plays out on several levels: between ‘The reason I chose The Dance quial dialogue. The play, about the Protes- different social classes and between a of Death is because it is the most tant reformer , was acclaimed man and a woman. In this chamber play, ingeniously structured of all Strindberg’s plays. I think that for its psychological realism, a novelty aristocratic Miss Julie is seduced and ma- play and are at a time when dramas were dominated nipulated into committing suicide by an his best works. They’re timeless, by the idealistic depiction of characters. ambitious servant, Jean. whereas Miss Julie, for instance, Strindberg’s work in this genre include other naturalist dramas by Strindberg describes relationships between eight plays about Swedish monarchs. include and (both people from a time already past.’ 1888–89), which respectively describe the English actor and director Naturalist plays struggles between two women and two Alan Rickman (1946–) in drama first emerged as a men. The Dance of Death (1900) is one of ‘Watching or working on the plays significant force in the late 1880s, and Strindberg’s darkest depictions of mar- of Strindberg is like seeing the Strindberg played an important role in riage, with the naturalism punctuated by skin, flesh and bones of life sepa- rated from each other. this development. His international break- dreamlike sequences. Challenging and timeless.’ through came with his great naturalist The Father (1887), Miss Julie Fairy-tale plays (1888) and (1889). In stark contrast to Strindberg’s realistic Strindberg was a pioneer of the serious dramas are his and dream „ 4 | facts about sweden | August Strindberg sweden.se

P h o Poetry t o: Håk o: Strindberg’s poems were radical both in

a n L r ss on content and form. As in his prose, Strind- berg used colloquial language, writing in free or irregular verse. Thematically, the poems range from satire to more delicate works about love and the archipelago. The poetry cycle Sleepwalking Nights (1884) is a sequence of five philosophical poems considered to be one of Strindberg’s most significant works.

Revealing stories Much of Strindberg’s prose is autobio- graphical. In (1886), he recounts his upbringing and early years as a writer. Nonetheless, it is not an au- tobiography; the novel is told in the third person. Nor is Strindberg completely relia- ble as the narrator of his life. For instance, he presents his upbringing as far more proletarian than it actually was. The Confession of a Fool (1887-88), writ- ten during the turmoil of his marriage to Siri von Essen, is one of Strindberg’s most revealing novels. The work generated A scene from Miss Julie, Strindberg’s most performed play. considerable discussion about the way the wife was portrayed. Previously, he had „ plays, allegorical dramas with elements ply, evaporate, condense, dissolve and launched a direct attack on the feminism of fantasy. Strindberg’s first drama in this merge. But one consciousness rules of the day and on marriage as an institu- genre was Lucky Peter’s Travels (1882), them all: the dreamer’s; for him there tion in his two-volume short story collec- most likely inspired by ’s are no secrets, no inconsistencies, no tion, Getting Married (1884–86). . Other plays with a fairy-tale scruples and no laws. Between 1894 and 1896, Strindberg quality are Simoom (1889) and the play underwent a severe religious and mental The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Satirical novels crisis, the so-called Inferno crisis. After (1892). Strindberg’s breakthrough as a novel- a long break in his writing, he wrote the The trilogy The Road ist came in 1879 with his debut, The novel Inferno (1897), which describes a „ (1898–1904) was written toward the Red Room. It wasn’t just his first literary

end of Strindberg’s Inferno crisis, and success, it also launched a new era in Ill

ion: Ad atr ion: st u describes his road to reconciliation and . The story of a young conversion to . Form-wise idealist, Arvid Falk, leading a bohemian

the play broke new ground: reality and life in Stockholm’s cultural and journal-

tt Hi m dreams are interwoven with a doppel- istic circles is based on Strindberg’s a ganger motif and surreal dream scenes. own experiences. A realistic contem- in (1901), Strindberg porary satire, it incorporates colloquial takes the experimental elements of The language and an earthiness

Ill

Road to Damascus even further. The that were unusual in novels ustration: Teatro del terror story centers on the daughter of the god of that time. In many of his Indra, who comes down to earth. One of subsequent works, Strind- Strindberg’s best-known lines, ‘It is not berg maintained the biting easy to be a human being!’ comes from social criticism found in this play. Strindberg wrote about its unu- The Red Room. Books such as sual structure in the preface: The Swedish People (1881–82) Time and space do not exist; the im- and August Strindberg’s Small agination spins, weaving new patterns Catechism for the Working Class Strindberg’s plays on a flimsy basis of reality: a mixture of (1884) contain sharp attacks on are performed memories, experiences, free associa- the state, the schools and the worldwide. tions, absurdities and improvisations. church, as does his satire The characters split, double, multi- The New Kingdom. 5 | facts about sweden | August Strindberg sweden.se

tortured soul consumed by delusions P h o

„ t of supernatural powers. Legends (1898) S t rind b er gs mu s ee o: and Jacob Wrestles (1898) were continu- ations of Inferno. The Inferno crisis also gave rise to perhaps his most scathing work, From an Diary (1896–1908).

Archipelago sketches Strindberg spent a good deal of time in Stockholm’s archipelago. His lifelong love of the place imbued his prose and his paintings. A recurring theme in his ar- chipelago books is the conflict between town and country, civilization and nature. The People of Hemsö (1887) is one of Strindberg’s most widely read archipela- go novels, unusually easygoing despite its dark, bitter tone. A far darker depiction of archipelago life is By the Open Sea (1890) which, like The People of Hemsö, portrays the con- flicts between the local population and outsiders.

Issues with women Strindberg’s views on women’s inde- pendence are highly controversial. Even in his own time, Strindberg was consid- ered by many to be a misogynist, which he emphatically denied. He was not op- posed to women but rather to the wom- en’s movement, he said. He felt perse- cuted by what he called the ‘international women’s league’, and in essays such as Woman’s Inferiority to Man (1890) he spread his views abroad. The negative descriptions of women in Strindberg’s works generally coincided with the crises A self-portrait taken in the Stockholm archipelago in 1891. in his marriages. Strindberg’s view of women has en- gendered many interpretations. Is it pos- sible to read Strindberg and overlook the Useful links scathing depictions of women? To what extent was his view of women the effect www.auguststrindberg.se The Strindberg Society of an unstable mind? In which case, how www.extrapris.com/astrindberg.html detailed website about Strindberg should we approach his work? Opinion on this issue – as with so much of Strind- www.strindbergsmuseet.se The berg’s work – is still divided. n www.tassla.org The August Strindberg Society of Los Angeles (TASSLA)

Copyright: Published by the Swedish Institute. January 2012 FS 24.

All content is protected by Swedish copyright law. The text may be reproduced, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast in any media with reference to sweden.se. However, no photographs or illustrations may be used.

The Swedish Institute (SI) is a public agency that promotes interest and confidence in Sweden around the world. SI seeks to establish co-operation and lasting relations with other countries through strategic communication and exchange in the fields of culture, education, science and business.

Further information about Sweden: sweden.se, the Swedish embassy or consulate in your country, or the Swedish Institute, Box 7434, SE-103 91 Stockholm, Sweden. Phone: +46 8 453 78 00; e-mail: [email protected] www.si.se www.swedenbookshop.com www.swedenabroad.com