The purpose of this study is to investigate the distribution of medieval ballads as semiotics of intertextuality in modern Swedish literature, here represented by August Strindberg, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Kerstin Ekman and Katarina Frostenson. They are famous authors from different epochs, ranging from the period called “the modern breakthrough” in the 1880s until the postmodernism of the present time. My aim is to expose their attraction to medieval balladry, and their different ways of using form, language and style from this old poetry in poems, prose and plays, explicit as well as implicit.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att ge en insikt i hur den färöiska översättningen av Strindbergs novell Ett halvt ark papper förhåller sig till originalet i fråga om syntax och ordbildning ur ett såväl grammatiskt som semantiskt perspektiv. Metoden som tillämpas är en kvalitativ-komparativ metod som har sitt ursprung i en kombination av kopplingsanalys och komponentanalys. Resultatet av materialet visar att måltextens syntax överlag överensstämmer med syntaxen i källtexten med ett fåtal konsekventa undantag. Dessutom visar resultatet att ordvalet och sammansättningarna i måltexten överlag överensstämmer med källtexten. Trots att lexikaliseringen kan te sig annorlunda innehar de oftast samma denotationi och konnotation.

The thesis examines the five plays published by August Strindberg under the label of Chamber Plays: Stormy Weather, The Burned Lot, The Ghost Sonata, The Pelican (all 1907), and The Black Glove (1909). It takes its point of departure in a particular aspect of Strindberg’s way of writing as he actually describes it himself: during the act of deliberate composing, a productive fever tends to emerge bringing an element of chance to the work. The thesis defines the effect produced by this “fever” as the tension generated between, on the one hand, structure or form, and, on the other hand, style or writing. These concepts are associated with a tradition, primarily in French literary theory, which pays attention to what is described as a friction between the general linguistic aspect of literature (genres, recurring and recognizable patterns) and the individual aspect (the peculiar and idiosyncratic style of an author embodied in his material habitus). Thus the ambiguity found in the thesis’ title: the “mold” alludes partly to the stereotypes or matrices of language, partly to the “fungi” that, according to Strindberg, could be considered an adequate image for writing; the poetic work, says Strindberg, grows like mold from the author’s brain. Theoretical questions, primarily of a formal and interpretational nature, are continuously discussed since one of the main points is that the Strindbergian way of writing restricts what kind of interpretation may be given his works. The eventual contrast between form and interpretation is, furthermore, related to a general theme developed throughout the Chamber Plays concerning the meaning of life. It is stressed that the five plays show distinct formal and thematic differences; thus, a separate chapter is dedicated to each of them. The chapter on Stormy Weather examines the structural use of focus and the hierarchy of character-functions related to the centering on a protagonist. The Burned Lot is discussed from the concept of a ruin to describe how a multitude of conflicting forms come together to produce a fragmentary result. The Ghost Sonata is described in terms of simulation: while Strindberg alludes to certain dramatic patterns, he also distorts them whereby new effects are created. The chapter on The Pelican explores the temporal flow of the play and how it relates to writing. The thesis ends with a discussion of The Black Glove and its relation to the preceding Chamber Plays and also to the Strindbergian oeuvre. The concept of weed is used to distinguish a recurring element in Strindberg’s work as well as in his worldview. Throughout the thesis, the discussion is consistently related to previous studies and commentaries on the plays.

This written portion of my thesis documents how I, as director, conceptualized, devised and staged an immersive adaptation of August Strindberg’s A Dream Play, with the support of a large team of collaborators including: assistant directors, dramaturgs, designers, stage managers, and actors. In this document I attempt to synthesize the discoveries I made in this process regarding the challenges and experience of directing immersive theater, including the importance of giving up directorial control and relying on my collaborators as partners in the creation of the production. I begin with an introduction to the research I conducted into the field of immersive theater as well as my research on the work of August Strindberg, with a specific emphasis on the themes and context of A Dream Play. I then describe how I led my creative team through the process of designing a devised immersive theater production by encouraging open communication and fostering an atmosphere of trust. I also discuss the casting process and my efforts to establish an autonomous ensemble by allowing the actors to choose their own parts, write their own scripts, and devise their own scenes. I reflect on how I navigated the unpredictable nature of immersive theater, through a careful balance between detailed planning and free exploration, all the while embracing the possibility of failure as an expected part of the process. Finally, I attempt to assess the success of the production through examination of the impact it had on its audiences based on my own personal observations, as well as feedback collected through formal methods of survey.

Bengt Lidforss (1868–1913) was professor of botany between 1910 and 1913. But after the turn of the century he also emerged as a charismatic leader within the Swedish working-class movement. He became one of its foremost publicists. In the social democratic newspaper Arbetet in Malmö he wrote about natural sciences but also about political, philosophical and literary issues. As a literary critic Lidforss was the keenest protector of the Scanian literary school, and his struggle for Ola Hansson and Vilhelm Ekelund has made its mark in Swedish literary history, as have his contributions in favour of Gustaf Fröding and August Strindberg, culminating in the polemic articles during the Strindberg Feud (1910–11). Skönhetsdyrkare och socialdemokrat. Studier i Bengt Lidforss litteraturkritiska gärning (Worshipper of Beauty And Social Democrat. Studies in Bengt Lidforss’ Achievement As A Literary Critic) emphasises the paradoxic combination of Lidforss’ fundamentally socialist views and a strong belief in art. To him art was not isolated from society but quite the contrary; a significant factor in the changing of society. The new socialistic human being should be ennobled by arts instead of emasculated by religion. With the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “field”, it is shown how Lidforss, by attacking leading middle-class newspapers and publicists, created for himself and Arbetet a constantly stronger position within the field of journalism. Within the field of literary criticism he attacked the middle-class critics, and thus participated in associating Strindberg and Fröding as well as the young Scanian writers with the working-class movement. Lidforss’ literary taste was seen as an alternative to middle-class taste and the worshipping of beauty thereby became fashionable among socialists. The fact that one finds sympathies not only for symbolism but also for decadent descriptions with Lidforss the socialist, has to do with the fact that the descriptions of the discomfort of the heroes revealed the disadvantages of the capitalist society. Nevertheless Lidforss’ issued warnings against programmatic pessimism, since he was of the opinion that literature should strengthen people in their struggle. When it came to the plight of the human being under capitalism he was a pessimist, but he believed the stronger in a future socialist society. The terms for the artists would be more tolerable in such a society, he prophesied. He admitted that revolutionary poetry could be useful but was of the opinion that the quality of art would lessen if it consciously served politics. The revolutionary poetry he praised in his reviews was poetry he found genuine and coming from the heart. He did not favour pronounced tendencies, but he liked to use poetry in a political context. / Bengt Lidforss (1868–1913) var botaniker, men också publicist och socialist. Skandalomsusad och färgstark har han porträtterats av ett stort antal skönlitterära författare, allt ifrån August Strindberg till Inger Alfvén. Hans mångsidiga medarbetarskap i Arbetet hjälpte tidningen fram till en uppmärksammad position. I denna bok skildras hans kamp för en ledande position också inom det litterära fältet. Lidforss var en skönhetsdyrkare av stora mått men samtidigt socialdemokrat. Detta ledde till att han stred på många kulturella arenor – inte bara mot kritiker, författare, och Svenska Akademien, utan också mot inflytelserika män inom kyrka och politik. Skönhetsdyrkare och socialdemokrat ger oss oväntade svar på vad dessa bataljer handlade om och vi får möta Lidforss samtida giganter som Fredrik Böök, Vilhelm Ekelund, Albert Engström, Verner von Heidenstam, Oscar Levertin, August Strindberg med flera.

In this essay I perform readings of five influential literary works of the Modern Breakthrough in Nordic literature: Et dukkehjem (1879) by Henrik Ibsen, Niels Lyhne (1880) by Jens Peter Jacobsen, Barndomsvänner (1886) by Karl August Tavaststjerna, Fru Marianne (1887) by Victoria Benedictsson, and Ensam (1903) by August Strindberg. My aim is to identify and analyze discourses of loneliness and community. A central theme, both in this literature and in the contemporary society, is the problematization of gender roles. I find that the literature questions the polarization of gender roles through its depiction of marital relationships. At the same time, alternative communities are often portrayed as more fallible than those of marriage and nuclear family, forming discourses where marriage and nuclear family are prioritized over alternative communities – with a possible exception of national community. This paradoxical existence of modernity highlights the complexity of societal development: societal change requires not only political reforms but also change within subjects. The paradoxicality can be viewed as a manifestation of inner struggles. Finally, I reflect upon the endeavor to obtain entity that I find in these literary works. As connections between nature, culture and kinship, as well as between the past, the present and the future are formulated, issues of power/powerlessness and responsibility are brought into question. I propose further studies on these themes in relation to the emergence of nationalism, racial biology and fascism in 19th and 20th centuries, in order to deepen the understanding of the structure and the conditions of nationalism, racial biology and fascism in this context.

Das schreibende Ich prägt formal wie thematisch die literarische Entwicklung der letzten Jahre. Seit der Jahrtausendwende hat die Produktion autobiographischer und autofiktionaler Literatur insbesondere auf dem skandinavischen Buchmarkt erheblich zugenommen. Obwohl (noch) kein kritischer Konsens besteht, was der Begriff Autofiktion genau bezeichnet, ist das Changieren zwischen Fakt und Fiktion im autobiographischen Schreiben zu einer der beliebtesten literarischen Strategien im zeitgenössischen Erzählen avanciert. Die literaturwissenschaftliche Forschung zur Autofiktion ist im Zuge dessen auf diesen Trend aufgesprungen und insbesondere nach der Veröffentlichung von Karl Ove Knausgårds Romanprojekt Min kamp (2009–2011) sind die literaturwissenschaftlichen Diskussionen zu Autofiktion und literarischer Selbstdarstellung in Skandinavien deutlich angestiegen. Die literaturwissenschaftlichen Beiträge kreisen im weiteren Sinne um die dichotomischen Beziehungen von Fakt vs. Fiktion, Roman vs. Autobiographie sowie um die Inszenierung der Autor*innen in der literarischen Öffentlichkeit. Dabei ist autofiktionales Schreiben als konkrete erzählerische Praxis betrachtet in den Hintergrund gerückt, weshalb in dieser Arbeit der Versuch gemacht wird, die Fragen nach den literarischen Verfahren innerhalb dieser Texte in den Vordergrund zu stellen. Mit Ausgangspunkt in Texten von August Strindberg, Maja Lundgren, Karl Ove Knausgaard und Björn Rasmussen wird in dieser Arbeit Spezifika einer autofiktionalen Erzählpraxis herausgearbeitet, in welcher die Autorin oder der Autor in erster Linie einen narrativen Autoritätsanspruch über ihren bzw. seinen autobiographischen Text erhebt und hierdurch in der Bestrebung, die autobiographische Wirklichkeit zu schreiben, die Grenze zwischen Wirklichkeit und Literatur und somit zwischen Leben und Text transzendiert / Since the turn of the Millennium there has been a remarkable increase in the production of autobiographical and autofictional literature in Scandinavia. While there is (still) no critical consensus to what the term autofiction precisely designates, the oscillation between fact and fiction in autobiographical writings has emerged as one of the most favoured literary strategies when it comes to negotiating, (re)-constructing, and staging identity and individuality. The academic discussions about autofiction and autofictional writing in Scandinavia are mostly concerned with the opposed relations of fact/fiction, true/false, and novel/autobiography or with the mediatised performativity of the author in the public sphere. In this respect, the specific narrative practices of autofictional writing have taken a back seat in the academic exploration of autofiction. In this thesis it is examined how autofictional writing in selected novels by August Strindberg, Maja Lundgren, Karl Ove Knausgaard and Björn Rasmussen is being set forth within the narration of the text, a thus far unexplored research field. The analysis of the position of the author in his or her text enables us to see that the interplay of fact and fiction in the autobiographical text is predominantly conveyed by narrative strategies. The narrative presence of the author in the text entails specific self-reflexive practices, which can be identified through an increased use of narrative transgressions of the extradiegetic and diegetic discourses that allow the actual author of the text to slip into his narration. The narrative roaming between the reality of the author and the narration that he is producing is used as a means of taking over the authority of the individual life story and to write autobiographical on own subjective and aesthetic terms.

<p>Inferno constitutes a turning point in Strindberg's literary production in that scriptural quotations appear more frequently and a new style emerges. This thesis presents the characteristics of the scriptural quotations appearing in Inferno (1897) and Jacob Wrestles (a fragment following Légendes, written in French and in Swedish in 1898). Comparative, discourse, textual and intertextual approaches are used to define the place and role of scriptural quotations in this literary corpus.</p><p>From a historical point of view, both novels are part of the religious history of late 19th century France, where religion played a more important role than during the scientific, rationalist era characterizing the preceding decades. Strindberg adopts a new style corresponding to the spirit of his time. The art of "quoting the Bible at random" is a rhapsodic style, which appears mainly in Strindberg’s correspondence, in his Occult Diary (writings contemporary with Inferno) and in the work of some French 19th century writers. This style originates, above all, in the occult tradition, but it is also a means of imitating the Bible and identifying with a prophetic figure.</p><p>The research discussed in this dissertation has made it possible to determine, for the first time, what Bible translations are used in the two novels by Strindberg (translations by Ostervald and Martin / Roques). Five different types of rewritings of quotations were found: omissions, cutting of verses, substitutions, typographical changes and inversions. These variations were aimed at harmonising the Biblical text and the Strindbergian text, while removing contextual and theological elements that bothered the writer. The discourse analysis has concentrated on the quotations viewed as reported speech, distinguishing different ways of introducing Biblical verses in the novel. It was found that the narrator's subjectivity is present in the comments leading up to the quotations. The polyphonic character of some quotations has stressed the importance of identification play between the narrator and certain quotations characters such as Christ, Job and the psalmist.</p><p>The intertextual analysis has revealed a large number of similarities in the scriptural quotations in the literary production of Strindberg, Swedenborg and French 19th century literature. It is shown that Inferno contains various quotations that appear in Occult Diary and in other writers’ works, such as those of Swedenborg, Péladan, Zola, Huysmans and Chateaubriand. Jacob Wrestles, on the other hand, does not include as many intertextual elements but instead reassembles many scriptural quotations that were underlined in the Bible translation used for this novel: La Sainte Bible, Ostervald's translation from 1890, which can be found in Blå Tornet (The Strindberg Museum in Stockholm). Strindberg is consequently recycling Biblical material when he writes Inferno, while resorting to the French Bible of Ostervald from 1890 to write Jacob Wrestles.</p><p>The quotations strewn in Inferno constitute a crescendo and reveal the narrator’s unsuccessful attempt at conversion, at the same time forming the structure of a complaint psalm in which the narrator cries out his suffering and awaits liberation. In the French text of Jacob Wrestles, the writer offers a package of scriptural quotations in order to identify the narrator as "a religious man", imploring God's mercy like Moses and Job. In the Swedish text of Jacob Wrestles, a new perspective is introduced as a result of the change in language, the change from Old to New Testament, the new spiritual disposition of the narrator and the sudden intrusion of the writer in the narrator’s space. The role of scriptural quotations in the entire fragment of Jacob Wrestles is a true linguistic, thematic and theological revolution, which accounts for the narrator's extraordinary religious evolution. The misery of the narrator in Inferno allows a ray of Christian hope, which will persist in Strindbergs’s literary production post-Inferno.</p>

Inferno constitutes a turning point in Strindberg's literary production in that scriptural quotations appear more frequently and a new style emerges. This thesis presents the characteristics of the scriptural quotations appearing in Inferno (1897) and Jacob Wrestles (a fragment following Légendes, written in French and in Swedish in 1898). Comparative, discourse, textual and intertextual approaches are used to define the place and role of scriptural quotations in this literary corpus. From a historical point of view, both novels are part of the religious history of late 19th century France, where religion played a more important role than during the scientific, rationalist era characterizing the preceding decades. Strindberg adopts a new style corresponding to the spirit of his time. The art of "quoting the Bible at random" is a rhapsodic style, which appears mainly in Strindberg’s correspondence, in his Occult Diary (writings contemporary with Inferno) and in the work of some French 19th century writers. This style originates, above all, in the occult tradition, but it is also a means of imitating the Bible and identifying with a prophetic figure. The research discussed in this dissertation has made it possible to determine, for the first time, what Bible translations are used in the two novels by Strindberg (translations by Ostervald and Martin / Roques). Five different types of rewritings of quotations were found: omissions, cutting of verses, substitutions, typographical changes and inversions. These variations were aimed at harmonising the Biblical text and the Strindbergian text, while removing contextual and theological elements that bothered the writer. The discourse analysis has concentrated on the quotations viewed as reported speech, distinguishing different ways of introducing Biblical verses in the novel. It was found that the narrator's subjectivity is present in the comments leading up to the quotations. The polyphonic character of some quotations has stressed the importance of identification play between the narrator and certain quotations characters such as Christ, Job and the psalmist. The intertextual analysis has revealed a large number of similarities in the scriptural quotations in the literary production of Strindberg, Swedenborg and French 19th century literature. It is shown that Inferno contains various quotations that appear in Occult Diary and in other writers’ works, such as those of Swedenborg, Péladan, Zola, Huysmans and Chateaubriand. Jacob Wrestles, on the other hand, does not include as many intertextual elements but instead reassembles many scriptural quotations that were underlined in the Bible translation used for this novel: La Sainte Bible, Ostervald's translation from 1890, which can be found in Blå Tornet (The Strindberg Museum in Stockholm). Strindberg is consequently recycling Biblical material when he writes Inferno, while resorting to the French Bible of Ostervald from 1890 to write Jacob Wrestles. The quotations strewn in Inferno constitute a crescendo and reveal the narrator’s unsuccessful attempt at conversion, at the same time forming the structure of a complaint psalm in which the narrator cries out his suffering and awaits liberation. In the French text of Jacob Wrestles, the writer offers a package of scriptural quotations in order to identify the narrator as "a religious man", imploring God's mercy like Moses and Job. In the Swedish text of Jacob Wrestles, a new perspective is introduced as a result of the change in language, the change from Old to New Testament, the new spiritual disposition of the narrator and the sudden intrusion of the writer in the narrator’s space. The role of scriptural quotations in the entire fragment of Jacob Wrestles is a true linguistic, thematic and theological revolution, which accounts for the narrator's extraordinary religious evolution. The misery of the narrator in Inferno allows a ray of Christian hope, which will persist in Strindbergs’s literary production post-Inferno.

The Ghost Machine is a practice-based research project that explores the process of embodiment in animated film. It describes the process of transfiguration from the artist’s/auteur’s point of view and not from an outside position. The dissertation follows the embodiment of a dramatic text, the Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg (1907), into an animated film. The starting point is my experience of the drama, at the age of thirteen, when staged by Ingmar Bergman at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. As a teenager, the world of the grown-ups seemed to be corrupt, twisted and ruled by violent power plays and economic sanctions, and this play confirmed my world view. Was I right, as a thirteen-year-old boy? What kind of world emerges in my version of the Ghost Sonata? In this thesis work, the films and the experimental research process meet the practice and art of writing. Using text, not as “theory” separated from “practice” but as a bodily art practice, creates a shifting border between the results and intentions of art and filmmaking, and the results of writing. At the same time a unity emerges where the results of the research process can be seen and experienced in the interaction between the texts and the artwork. The Ghost Machine is a totality where the text, films and artworks included in the project are equally important and must be seen as a unity. The Ghost Machine is a work journey where travelling, animated film practice, networking with colleagues and collecting data are mixed with experiments using methods from contemporary arts practice, performance, reenactment, appropriation and transfiguration, blended with traditional puppet animation in classic Czech style. In collaboration with actors, mime artists, puppet makers, musicians and a minimal film crew, century old stop-motion animation is combined with computer animation.  The textual part of the work falls into two categories: life stories and work stories. The work stories traces the forming of an artwork in all aspects. The life stories are related to the subject of ghosts. Suddenly, dead friends and dear family members claimed their space. The understanding of the Ghost Sonata came to be a process of sorting out and following lines of memory using an inverted version of the Orpheus myth as a guide. Instead of never turning around, when walking the dead out of oblivion, I chose to look back, again and again, until I hit something and could not write anymore. / https://www.uniartsplay.se/slin