August Strindberg and visual culture : the emergence of optical modernity in image, text, and theatre

"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."--Bloomsbury Publishing 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 Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Contributors 11 Foreword: An Extraordinary Transdisciplinary Artist 16 Acknowledgements 18 1 Introduction: Visual Culture, August Strindberg and the Double Image of Modernity 20 2 Hands, Dissection and Embodied Seeing: Strindberg and Munch 38 3 ‘May the Force Be With You’: Strindberg’s Paintings 54 4 Strindberg the Environmentalist? Bloodstained Landscapes and the French Tradition of Nature Painting 72 5 Ghost Vessels: Anti-Theatricality, Visuality and Disembodiment Across Strindberg’s Late Chamber Media 94 6 Méliès’ Dream Film and Strindberg’s Dream Play: Compressing Time and Space 114 7 Strindberg and the Images of the Stage: A Dramaturg’s Perspective 132 8 Staging Strindberg’s A Dream Play: A Visual Essay 136 9 Robert Wilson’s Photographic Elements of Strindberg’s A Dream Play 154 10 Dream-Playing the Archive: Exploring the 1915–18 Düsseldorf Production of A Dream Play 160 11 Anticipations of the Digital: Dispersing Strindberg 166 12 Picturing Miss Julie: Gender and Visuality in Performance Practice 186 13 Strindberg’s Self-Portraits in Context 202 14 My Strindberg ‘Selfies’ 206 15 Scenography, Photography, Cinematography: Strindberg and the Technologies of Visual Representation 212 16 Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie (2014): An Interview with Reflections 232 Index 238

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.