Miss Julie and Its Preface: The Foundation of a Critical Conflict Essay

From its first publication and performance, August Strindbergs play female child Julie has been the source of vituperative controversy and debate. Written in the span of little more than mavin month in the summer of 1888, the play was banned or censor throughout Europe in the late Nineteenth Century. Because it dealt with situations and attitudes deemed morally or socially offensive (the daughter of an aristocrat seduces her fathers valet, and he, in turn, coerces her to commit suicide) the sign negative reaction to the play was rooted in generalized, fanatical, self righteous outrage and did not seek to deal with or engage the schoolbook in any specific manner. Instead, look out on Julie was a convenient target, characteristic of all that was corrupting and dangerous in an increasingly progressive world. By the early Twentieth Century, however, more focused moral and artistic critiques were leveled at Strindbergs self proclaimed naturalistic tragedy, a discussion that con tinues to thrive steady today. Though some of the moral and social issues may have deep in thought(p) their radical edge in later decades, there is still an ongoing, lively, and late divided debate. This is not to suggest that these modern critical concerns have unfit superior or even different links with the past or to this piece of literature. On the contrary, I would submit that Strindberg himself, as a literary critic of his own work, established (consciously or unconsciously) the fundamental guidelines and ground rules for the instructive controversies that have followed. By creating a dynamic tension between his theoretical, basically pragmatic intentions in his inclose to Miss Julie and his creative achievements in Miss Julie itself, Strindbergs e... ...wledge our inquiry provides centers around the critical orientation of each voice sounded in the debate. Works Cited Henderson Archibald. European Dramatists. Cincinnati Stewart and Kidd Co., 1913. Heller, Otto. P rophets of Dissent. Port Washington, NY Kennikat Press, 1918. Sprinchorn, Evert. Strindberg as Dramatist. New Haven Yale UP, 1982. Strindberg, August. Preface to Miss Julie. Michael Meyer trans., 1888. Rpt. in Strindberg Plays One. Michael Meyer trans. Reading, UK Cox and Wyman Ltd., 1993. ---. Miss Julie. Michael Meyer trans., 1888. Rpt. in Strindberg Plays One. Michael Meyer trans. Reading, UK Cox and Wyman Ltd., 1993. Tornqvist, Egil and Jacobs, Barry. Strindbergs Miss Julie A Play and Its Transpositions. Norwich Norvik, 1988. Williams, Raymond. Drama From Ibsen to Brecht. New York Oxford UP, 1968.