Den avväpnande förtroligheten : enaktare i Sverige 1870-90

Abstract

August Strindberg s own words, implying that he was the one who began the tradition of one-acters in Sweden is considered to be true. Yet, a tradition of one-act plays in Sweden was a fact long before Strindberg took an interest in one-acters, in the late 1880's. A study of the repertoire at The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm indicates that 29 Swedish one-act plays were set up between the seasons of 1869-70 and 1889-90, among them the early one-acters Strindberg wrote himself: I Rom (In Rome, 1870) and Den fredlöse (The Outlaw, 1871). All these plays are commented on and listed in the thesis. The analyses of the thesis focus on five one-acters, three of which have been played at The Royal Dramatic Theatre: Johan Grönstedts En timme på Blå porten (1871), Anne Charlotte Leffier's En räddande engel (1883) and Victoria Benedictsson's I telefon (1887). The other plays examined are Benedictsson's Romeos Julia (1888) and Strindberg s Den starkare (The Stronger, 1889). The aim of the thesis is to point out that there is interaction between dramatization in literary salons and the repertoire on public stages. By presenting the one-acters analysed here chronologically, and by showing how different kinds of traditions from literary salons were mixed and used, the thesis explains how the dramatic form became more and more concentrated during the period of the modern breakthrough. The dramatic devices that make this possible include: tableaux vivants-VikQ collages of opinions, more or less personified by examples being dramatized, repetitions of similar (but not really analogous) cases and lines similar to the ones in the proverbes dramatiques entertainments (with answers which include not only answers to the questions being made, but also new questions). This dramaturgy, combined with an interest in discussing marriage and the role of women in society, creates an intricate and sophisticated dialogue.