Strindberg's Secret Codes


Book Description

The works of the great Swedish playwright August Strindberg are enigmatic, taking the form of riddles that constantly ask readers, directors, actors, and spectators to find new and creative solutions. Focusing on all the major plays and the chamber p




The Cambridge Companion to August Strindberg


Book Description

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.




An International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870-2005: The plays


Book Description

This copiously annotated bibliography documents and examines the whole range of commentary on Strindberg's works and activity in many fields besides the plays for which he is internationally best known. These include his prose fiction and poetry, his work as an historian and natural historian, and his relationship to the other arts, most notably his painting. It is concerned with both lasting works of literary and dramatic criticism, as well as reviews of his books and plays in the theatre, and some more ephemeral material, all of this in several languages. Organised generically and by subject and individual work, the bibliography enables the reader to trace the changing impact of Strindberg and his works in various countries and during different periods. It is thus very much a study in reception as well as a bibliographical record of published material. It traces the developing image of Strindberg and his writing both during his lifetime and in subsequent years, and with frequent cross reference offers a comprehensive overview of a literary and existential project that has rarely been matched for its multifaceted diversity. The bibliography is published in three parts. Volume 1, General Studies (978-0-947623-81-4) and Volume 3, Prose, Poetry, Miscellaneous (978-0-947623-83-8) are also now available. Michael Robinson is Emeritus Professor of Drama and Scandinavian Studies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich.




August Strindberg and the Other


Book Description

The recent sesquicentennial of August Strindberg's (1849-1912) birth was an appropriate occasion for investigating the role of this towering figure in Nordic literature. By Eugene O'Neill once labeled the most modern of moderns, Strindberg the playwright has commanded a prophetic influence on 20th century drama and theater, and his voluminous production in several other genres continues to constitute a watershed and some of the highpoints in Swedish letters. Yet, Strindberg remains as controversial today as he was in his lifetime. The nature and degree of his modernity are still under discussion, and so is the impact of his remarkable genre-proliferation and border-transgressing Swedishness. Once considered too unruly for the pillars of society and too pious for the radicals, his artistic and existential points of gravity remain in critical dispute. Generally subjected to traditional modes of inquiry, Strindberg's complexity calls for new critical approaches. Strindberg and the Other brings together scholars, younger and older, from Scandinavia and abroad, who either venture such new approaches or engage their practitioners in fruitful dialogue. Especially promising among the volume's methodological and theoretical propositions is the notion of the 'other' and 'otherness.' Indeed, the image of August Strindberg himself is quite an-other at this millennium than it was just half a century ago.




An International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870-2005: General studies


Book Description

This copiously annotated bibliography documents and examines the whole range of commentary on Strindberg's works and activity in many fields besides the plays for which he is internationally best known. These include his prose fiction and poetry, his work as an historian and natural historian, and his relationship to the other arts, most notably his painting. It is concerned with both lasting works of literary and dramatic criticism, as well as reviews of his books and plays in the theatre, and some more ephemeral material, all of this in several languages. Organised generically and by subject and individual work, the bibliography enables the reader to trace the changing impact of Strindberg and his works in various countries and during different periods. It is thus very much a study in reception as well as a bibliographical record of published material. It traces the developing image of Strindberg and his writing both during his lifetime and in subsequent years, and with frequent cross reference offers a comprehensive overview of a literary and existential project that has rarely been matched for its multifaceted diversity. The bibliography is published in three parts. Volume 2, The Plays (978-0-947623-82-1) and Volume 3, Prose, Poetry, Miscellaneous (978-0-947623-83-8) are also now available. Michael Robinson is Emeritus Professor of Drama and Scandinavian Studies at the University of East Anglia, Norwich.




August Strindberg and Visual Culture


Book Description

August Strindberg and Visual Culture addresses the multiplicity of Strindberg's artistic and literary output. The book charts the vital intersections between theatre, aesthetic theory, and visual elements in his work that have been left largely unexplored. Rather than following traditional genre-bound critical approaches, this book focuses on the intermediality of individual works, the corpus as a whole, and their connections to a wide array of historical and contemporary artists, writers, photographers, film, theatre and museum practitioners. The book is beautifully illustrated, with many never-before-seen images from Strindberg's work, and includes contributions from actress Liv Ullmann, director Robert Wilson, and curator and museum director Daniel Birnbaum.




A History of Modern Drama, Volume I


Book Description

Covering the period 1879 to 1959, and taking in everything from Ibsen to Beckett, this book is volume one of a two-part comprehensive examination of the plays, dramatists, and movements that comprise modern world drama. Contains detailed analysis of plays and playwrights, connecting themes and offering original interpretations Includes coverage of non-English works and traditions to create a global view of modern drama Considers the influence of modernism in art, music, literature, architecture, society, and politics on the formation of modern dramatic literature Takes an interpretative and analytical approach to modern dramatic texts rather than focusing on production history Includes coverage of the ways in which staging practices, design concepts, and acting styles informed the construction of the dramas




Philosophers and Thespians


Book Description

This book investigates the discursive practices of philosophy and theater/performance on the basis of actual encounters between representatives of these two fields.




Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime Fiction


Book Description

Since the late 1960s, the novels of Sjowall and Wahloo's Martin Beck detective series, along with the works of Henning Mankell, Hakan Nesser and Stieg Larsson, have sparked an explosion of Nordic crime fiction--grim police procedurals treating urgent sociopolitical issues affecting the contemporary world. Steeped in noir techniques and viewpoints, many of these novels are reaching international audiences through film and television adaptations. This reference guide introduces the world of Nordic crime fiction to English-speaking readers. Caught between the demands of conscience and societal strictures, the detectives in these stories--like the heroes of Norse mythology--know that they and their world must perish, but fight on regardless of cost. At a time of bleak eventualities, Nordic crime fiction interprets the bitter end as a celebration of the indomitable human spirit.




August Strindberg


Book Description

"While August Strindberg (1849-1912) is well known to an international audience as a prolific writer of plays, novels, poetry, scientific essays and letters, his work in the visual arts has remained largely unseen. This illustrated book examines the paintings, drawings and photographs that display Strindberg's independent and radical approach to art, and his experimental innovations in photography." "Critics have compared Strindberg's paintings with Turner's but also with those of much later movements such as Informalism and Expressionism. In his youth, working as an art critic for a Swedish magazine in the 1870s, he was one of the first in Sweden to show understanding for the Impressionist movement in Paris. In writings in the 1890s he anticipated ideas favoured by Dada and Surrealism."--BOOK JACKET.