Modern Drama as Historiography and Cultural Critique: Prisons, Poverty, and Political Economy in August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death I

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August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death I [Dödsdansen I] (1900) has been understood as a pivotal play in the playwright’s extensive oeuvre, situated as a bridge between the naturalist works of his early career and the symbolist and proto-expressionist works of his later career. Few interpretations have been interested in historicizing the play’s references to its own sociocultural moment and immediate past. Yet The Dance of Death I is a play deeply invested in social and ideological critique and revisionist historiography. This article examines the play’s investigations into contemporary discourses on Swedish economic progress, military power, nationalism, and civic society, especially prison architecture.