Author’s Preface to Miss Julie (1888)

Abstract

Abstract It is paradoxical that this, perhaps the best known, manifesto of naturalism should have been issued by a writer who was not himself by any means a lifelong, all-ornothing naturalist. In fact, August Strindberg (1849-1912), author of some sixty plays —as well as a vast output of novels, short stories, autobiographical writings, poems, and essays —did not follow any one literary theory throughout his career. Many of his later dramas, such as To Damascus, Parts 1-111 (1898, 1904), A Dream Play (1901) (see pp. 158-9) and The Ghost Sonata (1907) were trail-blazing examples of subjective drama —the very reverse of naturalism. The theory formulated in defence of Miss Julie applies then only to a portion, albeit an important portion, of his work.