August Strindberg: Selected Essays
Cambridge University Press, 11/14/1996
EAN 9780521563758, ISBN10: 0521563755
Hardcover, 298 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in Swedish, translated by Michael Robinson
This is a fully edited translation of a series of essays by the great Swedish dramatist August Strindberg. The essays, edited and translated by Michael Robinson, have been selected for the light they shed, both directly and indirectly, on Strindberg's contribution to the European theatre, firstly in such masterpieces of psychological realism as The Father and Miss Julie, and subsequently in those works, including A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata, with which he largely established a basis for theatrical modernism. Together with the accompanying notes and commentary, these essays on psychology, history, painting, natural history and alchemy as well as the theatre, help to clarify the multifaceted nature of Strindberg's project. Idiosyncratic and lively, they offer crucial insights into the intellectual history of the late nineteenth century, while their personal nature draws the reader into an intimate relationship with the writer and his wide range of interests.
Notes on the text
Introduction
Part I. From Vivisections (1887)
1. 'The battle of the brains'
2. 'Nemesis Divina'
3. 'Mysticism - for now'
4. 'Soul murder (Apropos Rosmersholm)'
'On modern drama and modern theatre' (1889)
Part II. From Vivisections II (1894)
5. 'I'
6. 'The making of Aspasia'
7. 'Nemesis Divina (cont.)'
8. 'The new arts! or the role of chance in artistic creation'
9. 'Whence we have come'
10. 'Character a role?'
'Césarine' (1894)
'Deranged sensations' (1894)
'In the cemetery' (1896)
Part III. From Jardin des Plantes (1896)
11. 'Introduction'
12. 'The death's head moth'
13. 'Indigo and the line of copper'
14. 'To the heckler'
'On the action of light in photography' (1896)
'A glance into space' (1896)
'Edvard Munch's exhibition' (1896)
'The synthesis of gold' (1896)
'Contemporary gold-making' (1896)
'The sunflower' (1896)
'The mysticism of world history' (1903)
'August Strindberg on himself' (1909)
Notes and commentary
Index.