August Strindberg was a prolific writer whose plays, novels and essays did much to shape the literary consciousness of modern Sweden. Throughout the twentieth century Swedish playwrights and directors of film and theatre have found themselves returning continuously to Strindberg’s work as a challenge, a reference point and source of inspiration. In addition, his aesthetic ideas, his views on theatre practice, and his work as a playwright underpin much of twentieth-century European theatre from Expressionism to Absurdism. Frequently provocative, always densely textured, his plays baffled his contemporaries but gradually yielded their subtleties, with their complex interplay of form and meaning, to painstaking critical exegesis and the more visionary empathy of committed directors,…
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Citation: Thomas, David Bowen. "August Strindberg". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4265, accessed 23 November 2024.]
