Strindberg and the Quest for Sacred Theatre

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-90-420-2847-0
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 26, 195 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 327 g

Reihe: Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

Strindberg and the Quest for Sacred Theatre brings a fresh perspective to the study of Sweden’s great playwright. August Strindberg (1849-1912) anticipated most of the major developments in European theatre over the last century. As such he is well-placed to provide perspectives on the current burgeoning interest in sacred theatre. The religious crises of the 19th Century provoked in Strindberg both sharp scepticism about claims to religious authority and a visionary search for truth. Against the backdrop of a major change in European culture this book traces the emergence in some of Strindberg’s late plays of a proto-sacred-theatre. It argues that Strindberg faced the alternatives of a contentless transcendent abyss, threatening the extinction of his ego, or a retreat into conservative theism, reducing him to slavish submission to the commandments and rule of an external father-God. Weaving together theatrical, aesthetic, and theological voices, this book investigates the relationship of the sacred to subjectivity and its implications for Strindberg’s dramaturgy. In doing so it always keeps in view the sense both of loss and opportunity engendered by a turning point in the western experience of the sacred.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: 19. Jahrhundert
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Skandinavische Literaturen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

A Note on Strindberg Texts
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Salvation and Subversion in To Damascus
Incarnation and Liberation in A Dream Play
Illusion and the Void in four Chamber Plays
The Reversal of Dante in The Great Highway
Conclusion
Appendix: Kierkegaard, Brand and Master Olof
Bibliography
Names Index