Studies in Strindberg by Michael Robinson (review)

312 REVIEWS adherence to Beckeu's production requirements. The more Beckeu trusted Schneider - Schneider directed the United States premieres of five of Beckett 's plays - the more slavish Schneider became; and the more artistic freedom Beckett granted Schneider over the years, the more scrupulous and less inventive Schneider became. The temptation to judge the relationship and psychologize feels strong, but Beckeu would disapprove. In a famous 1957 leuer Beckett wrote, "I feel the only line is to refuse to be involved in exegesis of any kind ... If people want to have headaches among the overtones, let them. And provide their own aspirin ... That's all I can manage, more than I could" (24). These words apply both to Endgame and to the correspondence of Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider. EILEEN FISCHER, NEW YORK CITY TECHNICAL COLLEGE, C ITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK MICHAEL ROBINSON. Studies in Strindberg. Norwich, UK: Norvik Press 1998. Pp. 244· £24·95· One ofMichael Robinson's stated aims with his new book is to facilitate the reevaluation of Strindberg in England, a country to which Strindberg was never properly introduced. Widely considered the misogynistic antithesis to Ibsen, Strindberg, unlike Ibsen, lacked support from influential authors, critics, and actors such as George Bernard Shaw, William Archer, and Elizabeth Robins. To reverse this lack of interest for Strindberg in England, Robinson presents eleven essays that shed light on different aspects of Strindberg's vast production. The studies cover a wide variety of topics, ranging from Strindberg 's autobiographical writings to his correspondence, analysis of some of his plays, his role as a painter, and his influence on musica1 expressionism in Vienna. Some of the chapters are particularly valuable for students or critics of drama; others will be of interest to Strindberg scholars in general. Robinson hopes to show, he writes, that Strindberg was more than a playwright . Nevertheless, it is his chapters on Strindberg's plays that are the most interesting. These three essays - "Naturalism and the Plot in Creditors," "Prisoners at Play: Form and Meaning in Strindberg's The Dance of Death and Beckett'S Endgame," and "Towards a New Language: Strindberg's Break with Naturalism" - illustrate Strindberg's seminal role in the literary transition from naturalism to modernism. They show that plays such as The Father, Miss Julie, and The Creditors carry in them the modernist seeds that will burst the confinement of naturalism. Robinson shows that Strindberg, in his early writings , used the parameters of naturalism - the assumption that the individual is the result of heredity, environment, and the historical moment - and thereby created some of the most interesting naturalist plays. However, using all the Reviews 313 infonnation he could possibly tind, Strindberg concluded that it was impossible to give a univocal representation of an individual life or experience; if one analyzes the data of individual experience, they do not add up to a round sum. As a result, even Strindberg's "naturalistic drama [...Jdisplays [...J the acute self-consciousness about its own artistic nature which is normally associated with modernist texts" (93). Robinson points to one possible explanation for the acute, "modernist," artistic self-consciousness demonstrated by Strindberg's naturalist plays. Not only are his works imbued with autobiographical experiences, but Strindberg in fact stage-managed his own 1ife in order to obtain material for his artistic output. For instance, Robinson provides ample evidence from letters and other writings that the Inferno crisis was, at least on some level, stage-managed by Strindberg in order to gather experiences that could be used for future writing. He even knew when it was opportune to re-establish contact with reality. For Strindberg, life and art were always intertwined, with no clear separation between them. A detached, scientific view of his characters, as mandated by naturalist theorists, was therefore impossible for him. Similarly, Strindberg had sought to write in a "naturalistic" language in his early works; that is, descriptively, without resorting to symbols or poetic language . From the very beginning, this proved challenging. Strindberg noted in the preface to Miss Julie that to be realistic (his tenn for naturalistic), one has to follow the dialogue of individuals, and such dialogues may be highly unrealistic . As the self...