Strindberg, August (1849-1912), was a Swedish author who became one of the most influential dramatists of his time. His experiments in two major literary movements—Naturalism and Expressionism—made him second in importance only to Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in the development of modern drama. Strindberg’s Naturalism provided a philosophic foundation for subsequent realist writers. In addition, numerous modern writers have been influenced by the emphasis in Strindberg’s later works on anxiety, the irrational, alienation, and the fragmentation of personality. Strindberg wrote more than 65 plays. He also wrote novels, poetry, short stories, autobiography, and history.
Johan August Strindberg was born on Jan. 22, 1849, in Stockholm. He was hypersensitive from childhood on, displaying throughout his life the sudden and violent changes in mood that mark many of his plays. Strindberg wrote his first play in 1869. His first major drama was Master Olof (written in 1872), the finest historical play in Swedish drama. In 1877, Strindberg began the first of his three marriages, all of which ended in bitterness and divorce. His The Red Room (1879) was the first Naturalistic novel in Swedish (see Naturalism).
Strindberg lived most of the time from 1883 to 1898 in southern Europe. His collection of satirical short stories, Married (1884), aroused charges of blasphemy against him. The “battle of the sexes,” especially love-hate relationships between husbands and wives, dominated several plays, notably The Dance of Death (written in 1900), The Father (1887), Comrades (written in 1887), Creditors (1889), and Miss Julie (1889). His life in southern Europe ended with a period of severe emotional disturbance that followed the collapse of his first marriage. Strindberg had a mental breakdown, which he recorded in the autobiographical novel Inferno (1897).
After Strindberg returned to Sweden in 1898, he wrote a number of Expressionistic plays that convey the fleeting unreality of existence (see Expressionism). The best of these dramas was A Dream Play (written in 1901), which influenced the Surrealism movement of the 1920’s and 1930’s. He also wrote five shorter, mysterious “chamber plays,” notably The Ghost Sonata (1908). Four were written for the Intimate Theatre in Stockholm, which Strindberg cofounded in 1907. His last play was The Great Highway (1910), a spiritual autobiography presented as a symbolic fantasy. Strindberg died on May 14, 1912.
