Getting Married (collection)

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Newspaper illustration of Strindberg's reception on his return to Stockholm on 20 October 1884 to face charges of blasphemy arising from a story in the first volume of his collection Getting Married. Strindberg's reception in Stockholm 20-10-1884.jpg
Newspaper illustration of Strindberg's reception on his return to Stockholm on 20 October 1884 to face charges of blasphemy arising from a story in the first volume of his collection Getting Married.

Getting Married (Swedish : Giftas) is a collection of short stories by the Swedish writer August Strindberg. [1] The first volume was first published on 27 September 1884 and contained twelve stories depicting "twenty marriages of every variety," some of which present women in an egalitarian light. [2] The volume also contained a long preface, in which, in addition to his support for women's rights, Strindberg offered criticisms of the campaign (such as its class bias), as well as of Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House (the collection contains a story entitled "A Doll's House"). [3] Strindberg finished a second volume of stories, dealing in part with "all the less common forms of 'marriage'" such as "pederasty and lesbianism," in the summer of 1885. [4] After a delay caused by the unwillingness of printers and distributors to handle such a controversial volume, it was published in October 1886. [5] While the first two stories are as sympathetic to women as some of those in the first volume, many border on misogyny. [6] Its preface blamed women for religious persecution, war, and all of history's other misfortunes. [7] Both volumes were written at a time when Strindberg was still married to Siri von Essen, though the publication of the second volume had a disastrous effect on their marriage. [8]

Swedish language North Germanic language spoken in Sweden

Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken natively by 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden, and in parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to some extent with Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Both Norwegian and Danish are generally easier for Swedish speakers to read than to listen to because of difference in accent and tone when speaking. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It has the most speakers of the North Germanic languages.

Short story Brief work of literature, usually written in narrative prose

A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a "single effect" or mood, however there are many exceptions to this.

August Strindberg Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter

Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over sixty plays and more than thirty works of fiction, autobiography, history, cultural analysis, and politics. A bold experimenter and iconoclast throughout, he explored a wide range of dramatic methods and purposes, from naturalistic tragedy, monodrama, and history plays, to his anticipations of expressionist and surrealist dramatic techniques. From his earliest work, Strindberg developed innovative forms of dramatic action, language, and visual composition. He is considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature and his The Red Room (1879) has frequently been described as the first modern Swedish novel.

Contents

Court case

One week after the publication of the first volume of Getting Married, Strindberg was prosecuted for "blasphemy against God or mockery of God's word or sacrament," the maximum penalty for which was two years penal labour. [9] In "The Reward of Virtue" story, he criticised "the impudent deception practised with Högstedt's Piccadon ... and Lettström's wafers ... which the parson passed off as the body and blood of Jesus of Nazareth, the rabble-rouser who was executed over 1,800 years ago." [10] Two groups "led by influential members of the upper classes, supported by the right-wing press" probably instigated the prosecution; at the time, most people in Stockholm thought that Queen Sophia was behind it. [11] Strindberg returned to Sweden to face the charges, arriving on 20 October 1884 to a rapturous welcome. [12] At a special performance of his Lucky Peter's Journey at the New Theatre that evening, he was crowned with a laurel wreath. [13] He was acquitted of the charges on 17 November the same year. [14]

Blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable.

Penal labour work that prisoners are required to perform

Penal labour is a generic term for various kinds of unfree labour which prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included involuntary servitude, penal servitude and imprisonment with hard labour. The term may refer to several related scenarios: labour as a form of punishment, the prison system used as a means to secure labour, and labour as providing occupation for convicts. These scenarios can be applied to those imprisoned for political, religious, war, or other reasons as well as to criminal convicts.

Eucharist Christian rite

The Eucharist is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper; giving his disciples bread and wine during the Passover meal, Jesus commanded his followers to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the cup of wine as "the new covenant in my blood". Through the Eucharistic celebration Christians remember both Christ's sacrifice of himself on the cross and his commission of the apostles at the Last Supper.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Meyer (1985, 129-141) and Robinson (2009, xx).
  2. ↑ Strindberg, quoted by Meyer (1985, 129); see also Meyer (1985, 134).
  3. ↑ Meyer (1985, 130-133).
  4. ↑ Strindberg, Letter to Albert Bonnier, 30 June 1885; quoted by Meyer (1985, 146).
  5. ↑ Meyer (1985, 161).
  6. ↑ Meyer (1985, 161).
  7. ↑ Meyer (1985, 161).
  8. ↑ Meyer (1985, 133-134, 161-162).
  9. ↑ Meyer (1985, 134-135).
  10. ↑ Quoted by Meyer (1985, 134-135).
  11. ↑ Meyer (1985, 135).
  12. ↑ Meyer (1985, 138).
  13. ↑ Meyer (1985, 139).
  14. ↑ Meyer (1985, 140).

Sources

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

Project Runeberg digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries

Project Runeberg is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded by Lars Aronsson and colleagues at Linköping University and began archiving Nordic-language literature in December 1992. As of 2015 it had accomplished digitization to provide graphical facsimiles of old works such as the Nordisk familjebok, and had accomplished, in whole or in part, the text extractions and copyediting of these as well as esteemed Latin works and English translations from Nordic authors, and sheet music and other texts of cultural interest.

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