SOURCE: Carlson, Harry G. “Collecting the Corpse in the Cargo.” In Strindberg and the Poetry of Myth,” pp. 78-91. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.

In the following essay, Carlson examines the progrss of Strindberg's naturalistic period, from The Father through Miss Julie to The Creditors.

The sheer intense virtuosity of Strindberg's performance during his so-called naturalistic period was impressive. He was a diligent journalist, plundering the details of his own life for copy; a developing author, restlessly experimenting with new forms of expression in drama and fiction; and an eloquent mythopoeic artist, constantly searching for ways to anchor the present more firmly in the past.

In his plays there are two progressions apparent from The Father to Creditors. First, there is a process of distillation, Strindberg trying to present what is quintessentially dramatic and nothing more. He scraps the elaborate intrigue apparatus of the well-made play—with its...