Johan August Strindberg

Swedish playwright and novelist. Born January 22nd. His father ran a shipping company in Stockholm and his mother was a former waitress. He lost his mother at the age of 13 and the family's fortunes declined. It was in this gloomy family environment that he developed a rebellious attitude that would remain with him throughout his life. He studied at Uppsala University, but aspired to be a writer, writing plays such as At Rome (1870), Without Peace (1871), and Master Olov (1872), which won him recognition. He worked as a journalist and librarian at the Royal Library, and in 1877 married Siri von Essen, the ex-wife of a military aristocrat. He became a literary favorite with his satirical novel The Red Room (1879), which incorporated the experiences he had gained as a journalist. He devoted himself to playwriting after his wife Siri became an actress. Due to the harsh satire and sharp tongues in his short story collection "The New State" (1882) and poetry collection "Poems" (1883), he lived as a fugitive in Switzerland and France from 1883 to 1889. His novel "A Marriage Story" (1884, 1886), which was full of his views on women, led to a court case. After that, he wrote masterpieces such as the autobiographical novel "The Maid's Child" (1886, 1887, 1909), the naturalistic drama "The Father" (1887), "Miss Julie" (1888), "The Debtor" (1890), and the novel "By the Sea" (1890). However, in 1891, a breakdown in his relationship with his wife, with whom he had long lacked harmony, led to a divorce. The circumstances of this period are detailed in his novel "Confessions of a Fool" (1888). He lived mainly in Paris and Berlin from 1892 to 1896, and married an Austrian female journalist, Frieda Uhl, in 1893, but divorced in 1897. These years were known as his "Hellish Period", during which he suffered both material and mental hardship, and in his abnormal mental state, he became obsessed with alchemy and mysticism. "Hell" (1897) and "Legends" (1898) are autobiographical novels that tell the story of those years.

He then wrote historical dramas such as Gostav Basa (1898) and Charles XII (1901). His plays that broke with traditional forms, such as To Damascus (1898, 1904), The Dance of Death (1901), and Dream Plays (1902), had deeper meanings for the development of his subsequent works. In 1901, he married actress Harriet Bosse, but divorced in 1904. In 1907, he opened the small-scale "Affiliated Theatre" with a capacity of 161 people, and wrote four chamber plays with a performance time of about an hour that same year: The Lightning, The Burnt Ruins, The Ghost Sonata, and The Pelikan. The theatre closed in 1910. These plays were initially unsuccessful in Sweden, but later, thanks to Reinhardt's direction and O'Neill's evaluation, they were highly praised again in Sweden. One of his last works was the verse play The High Street (1909). His confrontational attitude remained constant throughout his life, as seen in his polemical Black Flag (1907) and the aphoristic Blue Book (1906-09), which he himself described as a commentary on it. The fact that he continued to waver between intense love and hatred for women, as evidenced by his three divorces, left him a strong impression on the public as a woman-hater. As a man of confrontational descent, he naturally had a strong sense of class, but this did not translate into practice, and was rather utopian. His literary interests were extremely broad, including natural science and alchemy, and he also showed a strong interest in the Orient and Japan. He also took up a paintbrush and was passionate about photography, but due to his unique personality he never reached the state of maturity that Goethe did. He spent the four years leading up to his death on May 14, 1912, in solitude in a section of a building called the Blue Tower. This is now preserved as the Strindberg Memorial Museum.

In Japan, works such as "Bond Ghost" and "Inazuma" translated by Mori Ogai were performed in the early Taisho period, and other plays were introduced by Yamamoto Yuzo and Komiya Toyotaka during the Showa period. He also translated novels and published anthologies. "Miss Julie" is his best-known play in Japan, and "Confessions of a Fool" left a strong impression of him as a woman-hater, but it cannot be said that he was an author who established himself among Japanese readers. Many of his translations were retranslations from German or English.

[Michio Tanaka]

"Strindberg Masterpieces" translated by Mitsuya Mori et al. (1975, Hakusuisha) "Ibsen-Strindberg Collection" translated by Shizuka Yamamuro et al. (Definitive Edition World Literature Collection 10, 1954, Kawade Shobo)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

スウェーデンの劇作家、小説家。1月22日生まれ。父はストックホルムで船会社を経営し、母は給仕女あがり。13歳で母を失い、家運は傾く。暗い家庭環境のなかで、彼の生涯を貫く反抗的姿勢が芽生える。ウプサラ大学に学んだが、作家を志し、『ローマにて』（1870）、『平和なき者』（1871）、『ウーロフ師』（1872）などの戯曲を書き、世に認められる。ジャーナリスト、王立図書館司書などの職につき、77年には軍人貴族の元妻シリ・フォン・エッセンと結婚。ジャーナリスト時代の見聞を織り込んだ風刺小説『赤い部屋』（1879）で文壇の寵児(ちょうじ)となる。妻シリが女優となったことから劇作に打ち込む。短編集『新国家』（1882）、詩集『詩』（1883）などの辛辣(しんらつ)な風刺、毒舌が禍(わざわい)して、1883～89年にかけてスイス、フランスなどで逃避生活を送る。女性観を盛った『結婚物語』（1884、86）が裁判沙汰(ざた)となる。以後、自伝小説『女中の子』（1886、87、1909）、自然主義戯曲『父』（1887）、『令嬢ジュリー』（1888）、『債鬼』（1890）、小説『大海のほとり』（1890）などの傑作を書く。しかし91年に、かねてから調和を欠いていた妻との間がこじれて離婚。この間の事情は小説『痴人の告白』（1888）に詳しい。92～96年おもにパリ、ベルリンに滞在、93年オーストリアの女流ジャーナリスト、フリーダ・ウールと結婚するが、97年には離婚。この92～97年はいわゆる「地獄時代」で、彼はこの間、物心両面で困窮し、異常な精神状態のうちに、錬金術、神秘思想に凝った。『地獄』（1897）、『伝説』（1898）はその間の事情を物語る自伝小説である。

　その後『グースタブ・バーサ』（1898）、『カール12世』（1901）などの史劇を手がける。伝統的形式を脱した戯曲『ダマスクスへ』（1898、1904）、『死の舞踏』（1901）、『夢幻劇』（1902）などは、以降の作品の展開にとってより深い意味をもつ。1901年女優ハリエット・ボッセと結婚するが、04年に離婚。07年、161人収容の小規模な「親和劇場」を開き、上演時間1時間程度の室内劇『稲妻』『焼け跡』『幽霊ソナタ』『ペリカン』の四編を同年に書く。劇場は10年に閉鎖。当初スウェーデンでは不成功に終わったこれらの戯曲は、後年ラインハルトの演出、オニールの評価によって、本国でも改めて高く評価された。最晩年の作に韻文劇『大街道』（1909）がある。論争的な『黒旗(くろはた)』（1907）、それの「注釈」と彼自らが銘打つ、警句に満ちた『青書(せいしょ)』（1906～09）にもみられるように、抗争的姿勢は終生変わらなかった。女性に対し激しい愛と憎しみの間を動揺し続けた事実は、3回の離婚歴がよく物語っており、彼を女性憎悪者として世間に強く印象づけた。社会に対して抗争的な彼が強い階級意識を抱いていたのは当然だが、それは実践にはつながらず、むしろユートピア的であった。作家的関心の領域はきわめて広く、自然科学、錬金術にも及び、東洋、日本にも強い興味を示した。絵筆もとり、写真にも熱中したが、彼の特異な性格から、ゲーテのように円熟の境地には達しなかった。1912年5月14日の死に至るまでの4年間を、「青い塔」とよばれる建物の一郭で孤独のうちに過ごす。ここは現在ストリンドベリ記念館として保存されている。

　日本では森鴎外(おうがい)訳『債鬼』『稲妻』などを大正初期に上演、さらに昭和にかけて山本有三、小宮豊隆(とよたか)らによって他の戯曲も紹介された。小説の翻訳、選集の出版も行われた。『令嬢ジュリー』は日本でもっともなじみ深い戯曲で、『痴人の告白』は女性憎悪者の彼を強く印象づけたが、日本の読者層に定着した作家とはいいがたい。翻訳は独訳または英訳からの重訳が多かった。

［田中三千夫］

『毛利三弥他訳『ストリンドベリ名作集』（1975・白水社）』▽『山室静他訳『イプセン・ストリンドベリ集』（『決定版世界文学全集10』1954・河出書房）』

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