STRINDBERG, JOHAN AUGUST. – Swedish writer, b. in Stockholm on 22 Jan. 1849, d. there on 14 May 1912. He established himself in his youth with *Master Olof* (1872), a drama in which the promoter of the Lutheran Reformation in Sweden was presented on stage and the anti-democratic sentiments of the author were expressed, and especially with *Röda rummet* (*The Red Room*, 1879), a naturalistic and satirical novel about the society of the Swedish capital.
To the naturalistic period also belong the stories contained in *Svenska öden och äventyr* (*Swedish Destinies and Adventures*, 1882, 1883, 1884), one of the most genuine works of the author, and *I havssbandet* (*In High Sea*, 1890), a crude naturalistic drama. S. came into contact with European culture and intellectual circles during his long stays abroad, particularly in Denmark, Switzerland—where he encountered Russian revolutionaries—in Germany, and in France. Brandes introduced him to Nietzsche’s thought, and in *I havssbandet* S. wrote his novel of the Superman. Then, having become acquainted with the visionary mysticism of Swedenborg, S. underwent a profound mystical crisis, arriving at a view of life in which suffering is justified as expiation for evil and sin, and, as Gabbett writes, “his religiosity became increasingly tinged with Catholicism.” Among his many writings from this period, the most typical may be cited: *Inferno* (1897) and *Till Damaskus* (*The Road to Damascus*, 1898–1904); the dramas *Påsk* (*Easter*, 1901) with the central figure of Eleonora in which the sense of pain and expiation is powerfully conveyed; *Dödsdansen* (*The Dance of Death*, 1901), one of the most sombre and desolate expressions of S.’s misogyny; the more properly fairy-tale dramas, in which the influence of Maeterlinck is also felt, such as *Drömspelen* (*The Dream Play*, 1902); and a new group of historical-religious tragedies including *Gustav Vasa* and *Gustav Adolf*. In 1907 S. founded his Intimate Theatre and for it composed other fairy-tale, symbolic, and mystical dramas, among which *Spöksonaten* (*The Ghost Sonata*, 1907) in which mystical exaltation reaches its climax. In his final years he engaged once more in violent literary and political polemics, attacking Heidenstam’s neo-humanism and professing forms of vaguely Christian socialism. His death deeply moved even the humblest classes.
S. is one of the most tormented and embittered figures in the European literature of the late 19th century. There is no single point of arrival in his vast output as a writer, but his vocation and commitment are undeniable, and his multifarious production is studded with surprising intuitions and anticipations of cultural and artistic movements that came after his time, to which he is in substance far less bound than an Ibsen. He is a figure who, even in his lifetime, belonged not only to Sweden but to Europe, and was confusedly and painfully aware of this.