Strindberg The Man

Author : Gustaf Uddgren
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781523285297
Total Pages : 168 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (852 download)

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Download or read book Strindberg the Man written by Gustaf Uddgren and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-01-06 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Introduction. There are two distinct ways in which to deal with genius and the works of genius: The old and the new. The old method may be characterized as the descriptive. It is, generally speaking, negative. It occupies itself mainly with the conscious motives and the external phases of the artist and his life and gives a more or less literal interpretation of his creation. From an historical point of view the descriptive method has its own peculiar value; from the psycho-analytic viewpoint it is less meritorious, since it adds but little, if anything, to the deeper understanding of the creative mind. The new or interpretative method is based on psychology. It is positive. It deals exclusively with man's unconscious motivation as the source and main-spring of works of art of whatever kind and independent of time and locality. Thus while the descriptive method accepts at its face value the work of genius, the new or psychoanalytic method penetrates into the lower strata of the Unconscious in order to find the key to the cryptic message which is indelibly though always illegibly written in large letters on every work of art. Gustaf Uddgren's Strindberg The Man (En ny bok om Strindberg) is not a psycho-analytic interpretation of Strindberg in the true sense of the term. It is rather descriptive with a strong analytic tendency. As a matter of fact, it contains a number of elements of such general interest as to justify the translator's ambition of rendering the work accessible to the English speaking public. It constitutes the unpretentious message in the form of biography and reminiscence of one of those relatively few and highly favored individuals who can lay claim to a certain amount of intimate personal contact with the great Swedish author. Furthermore, Gustaf Uddgren possesses such a clear insight into and so profound an appreciation of the complex problems with which Strindberg wrestled unceasingly all his life, as to be entitled to a hearing abroad as well as at home. The book affords an excellent general survey of the many-sided, turbulent life and activities of Sweden's foremost author. Here we meet the juvenile- poet and indomitable revolter such as he appeared to the people of the seventies; the so-called misogynist who in the eighties caused a world-wide sensation with his Married, his novels, autobiography and naturalistic plays; the wandering scientist, acid psycho-analyst, mystic and paranoiac of the nineties who rises out of his Dantesque Inferno, like the bird Phoenix from his ashes, to produce over a score of dramas-historical, transcendental, social -of such unprecedented excellence as to compare favorably with the greatest dramatic monuments of all times- the Shakespearian. We follow him to his native land after long years of exile on the Continent only to find him rejected, hated and harassed by his own. And finally we retire with him to the Blue Tower where he spends his declining years like a hermit until death claims him on the 14th of May, 1912....