I begjærets tjeneste : Strindberg og Lacan på scenen

Sammanfattning: In the Service of Desire is an interdisciplinary study that combines psychoanalysis with aesthetic materials. The dissertation aims to analyze five of August Strindberg’s dramas within a theoretical frame provided mainly by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The interpretations are, however, also supplemented with some specific philosophical perspectives. The Father, Miss Julie, Playing with Fire and The Dance of Death are studied as theatrical performances. The Father and Playing with Fire were directed by Staffan Valdemar Holm and staged at The Royal Dramatic Theatre Dramaten in Stockholm in 1997 and respectively 2002. Mademoiselle Julie was performed at the Comédie de Genève in Switzerland in 1988 and La Danse de mort was staged at the Comédie-Française in Paris in 1996. The stage director Matthias Langhoff was responsible for the two French-speaking productions. Creditors (1888) is analyzed as drama text.The method of study is to establish a reciprocal connection between Strindberg’s texts and Lacan’s theories, which makes it possible to demonstrate their multiple points of intersection. The different chapters expose certain Lacanian concepts in relation to the fictive protagonists. Through this procedure Strindberg’s characters, on as well as off-stage, are unmasked as typical Lacanian subjects; they owe their being to a certain nonbeing.  As a consequence, the traditional stories about the characters are inverted, in particular the women’s narratives. Because they are working in the service of desire, they are also opposing the patriarchy as a social system; transgressing the rules of decorum. Rejecting hegemonic ideals and the oedipal taboo as the final point, the women search for a personal truth of their own. Thus, the dissertation proposes the Lacanian psychoanalysis as a relevant and effective means of examining cultural and social structures, whether the characters are acting on a stage or wandering between the covers of a book.