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.
Foreword: An Extraordinary Transdisciplinary Artist Daniel Birnbaum, The Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden 1. Introduction: Visual Culture, August Strindberg, and The Double Image of Modernity Eszter Szalczer, Anna Westerstahl Stenport, and Jonathan Schroeder 2. Hands, Dissection, and Embodied Seeing: Strindberg and Munch Allison Morehead, Queen’s University, Canada 3. May the Force Be With You”: Strindberg's Paintings Arnold Weinstein, Brown University, USA 4. Strindberg the Environmentalist? Blood-stained Landscapes and the French Tradition of Nature Painting Eszter Szalczer, University at Albany, SUNY, USA 5. Ghosts of the Brain Made Real: Anti-theatricality, Visuality, and Disembodiment Across Strindberg’s Late Chamber Media Amy Holzapfel, Williams College, USA 6. Méliès’s Dream Film and Strindberg’s Dream Play: Compressing Time and Space Scott MacKenzie, Queen’s University, Canada, and Anna Westerståhl Stenport, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA 7. Strindberg and the Images of the Stage: A Dramaturg’s Perspective Magnus Florin, The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, Sweden 8. Staging Strindberg’s A Dream Play: A Visual Essay Robert Wilson, Artist and Director 9. Robert Wilson’s Photographic Elements of A Dream Play Jonathan Schroeder, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA 10. Dream-Playing the Archive: Exploring the 1915-18 Düsseldorf production of A Dream Play Astrid von Rosen, University of Gothenburg, Sweden 11. Anticipations of the Digital: Dispersing Strindberg Berndt Clavier, Malmö University, Sweden, and Timothy Engström, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA 12. Picturing Miss Julie: Gender and Visuality in Performance Practice Kristina Hagström-Ståhl, Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Art, Sweden 13. Strindberg’s Self-Portraits in Context Lisa Hostetler, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York, USA 14. My Strindberg Selfies Pierre Guillet de Monthoux, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 15. Scenography, Photography, Cinematography: Strindberg and the Technologies of Visual Representation Freddie Rokem, Tel Aviv University, Israel 16. Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie: An Interview with Reflections Liv Ullmann, Director and Actress
Jonathan Schroeder is William A. Kern Professor in Communications at Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. Anna Westerstahl Stenport is Chair and Professor in the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. Eszter Szalczer is Professor of Theatre and Head of History, Literature and Criticism of the Theatre Program at the University at Albany, New York, USA.
Reviews for August Strindberg and Visual Culture: The Emergence of Optical Modernity in Image, Text and Theatre
August Strindberg was not only a leading innovator in the modern theatre but also in modern art, in a new visual culture, on stage and on canvas. This highly stimulating book brings together a range of younger researchers, practitioners, artists, and prominent intellectuals to reassess a major literary figure from the perspective of visual theory and art history. * Göran Söderström, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Lund University and Stockholm University, Sweden, head of the Strindberg Museum (1973-1990), and author of Strindbergs måleri (2017) * This interdisciplinary collection brings together essays by Strindberg scholars, theater directors, and literary and cultural theorists that explore the interplay between writing, photography, painting, and modernity in Strindberg’s work. A welcome contribution to Strindberg’s scholarship, August Strindberg and Visual Culture illuminates the relationship of his work as a whole to visual cultures and different media since the turn of the last century. * Lynne R. Wilkinson, Associate Professor of Germanic Languages, Comparative Literature, and Women's and Gender Studies, University of Texas at Austin, USA *
