Abstract
The contribution of Erik Mattsson and Egil Törnqvist functions as an example of a more traditional notion of the national play, in which the Swedish king Gustav Vasa is displayed as founding father of the Swedish nation. The play was written at the end of the nineteenth century but is clearly set in the sixteenth century, when Gustav Vasa played an important role in unifying the nation. Törnqvist and Mattsson show that Vasa’s unifying qualities have long been emphasized, whereas his tyrannical and disruptive actions have been concealed. Recent more critical performances of the play have brought those less positive traits to light.
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Notes
- 1.
Alf W. Johansson , “Svensk nationalism och identitet efter andra världskriget”, in Vad är Sverige? Röster om svensk nationell identitet, ed. Alf W. Johansson (Stockholm: Prisma, 2001), 8. During the twenty-first century the nationalistic and right-wing populist party Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats) has gained remarkably in popularity, with 12.9 percent in the 2014 election and around 20 percent in recent opinion polls (2017). However, even if the Sweden Democrats favour a variety of romantic nationalism—such as talking about a ‘genuine’ Swedish culture and tradition, national history and kings—it is unclear how big an impact that part of their ideology has had on their election results, compared to socio-economic factors, general discontent with politicians and so on. (See for example Henrik Berggren and Lars Trägårdh , Är svensken människa?: gemenskap och oberoende i det moderna Sverige, second edition (Stockholm: Norstedts, 2015), 445 ff.).
- 2.
Another play sometimes referred to as the Swedish ‘national drama’ is Strindberg’s Mäster Olof (Master Olof, 1872/1881), which deals with the same period in history and to some extent also includes the same characters as Gustav Vasa. Other plays more occasionally mentioned as national dramas include Strindberg’s Kristina (Queen Christina, 1901), Dahlgren and Randel’s musical folk play Wermlenningarne (1846) and Staffan Göthe’s En uppstoppad hund (A Stuffed Dog, 1986), an epic play about the life in a northern small town from the 1950s to the 1980s.
- 3.
Leif Törnquist, Svenska flaggans historia (Stockholm: Medström, 2008).
- 4.
All in all, Strindberg wrote twelve national-historical dramas. For an overview, as well as a discussion of Strindberg’s view on history, see Matthew H. Wikander, “Out of Egypt: Strindberg’s historical drama”, in The Cambridge Companion to August Strindberg, ed. Michael Robinson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); see also Birgitta Steene , ed. Strindberg and history (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1992).
- 5.
Patrik Hall , Den svenskaste historien: Nationalism i Sverige under sex sekler (Stockholm: Carlsson, 2000), 36.
- 6.
Referring to Billig, Leerssen sees banknotes as an example of “an insidious, hardly noticed but omnipresent form of ‘banal nationalism’” (Joep Leerssen . National thought in Europe: a cultural history (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006), 188; see also Michael Billig. Banal nationalism (London: Sage, 1995)). Until 2016, the Swedish 1000 kronor banknote had a portrait of Vasa on the front, with Stockholm as a backdrop, and an image of the harvest under a shining sun on the reverse, a motif from Olaus Magnus’ cultural history (1555). Depicting not only the ‘founding father’, but also the ‘people’ of the nation, the banknote gives a romantic view of the nation as embodying the unification of the elite and the masses. Furthermore, the harvest theme points to the understanding of the nation as ‘fatherland’—or indeed ‘motherland’: “[T]he parental power to generate and transmit life is dependent upon the sustenance that is provided by the land in the form of fruits, produce and so on. Implicit in this attribution is the recognition that the land itself is a source of life [...].” (Steven Elliott Grosby, Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 44 f.). However, in a shift from one national ‘hero ’ to another, Vasa has recently been replaced on the 1000 kronor banknote by Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961.
- 7.
Åsa Linderborg, Socialdemokraterna skriver historia: historieskrivning som ideologisk maktresurs 1892–2000 (Stockholm: Atlas, 2001), 100 ff.
- 8.
Lars-Olof Larsson, Gustav Vasa—landsfader eller tyrann? (Stockholm: Prisma, 2002), 348–362.
- 9.
See Gustaf Ljunggren, Svenska dramat intill slutet av sjuttonde århundradet (Lund: Berlingska, 1864), 340 ff., 369 ff.
- 10.
Kurt Johannesson, “Det svenska skoldramat”, in Ny svensk teaterhistoria, vol. 1, Teater före 1800, ed. Sven-Åke Heed (Hedemora: Gidlunds förlag, 2007), 94.
- 11.
Oscar Levertin, Teater och drama under Gustaf III (Stockholm: Bonnier, 1920), 47. It should be noted that the spelling of ‘Gustav Vasa’ varies (e.g. ‘Gustav’/‘Gustaf’ and ‘Vasa’/‘Wasa’). Throughout this chapter the contemporary spelling ‘Gustav Vasa’ is used, for Strindberg’s play too where the spelling was originally Gustaf Vasa.
- 12.
However, since the nineteenth century the opera has been largely forgotten, partly, one might assume, because in it the Vasa character is nothing but a “cardboard figure” (Alan Swanson , “Gustaf Wasa and Gustav Vasa : Kellgren, Strindberg and a National Icon”, in Love and Modernity: Scandinavian Literature, Drama and Letters. Essays in Honour of Professor Janet Garton, eds. C. Claire Thomson and Janet Carbone (London: Norvik Press, 2014), 193).
- 13.
Elisabeth Frenzel, Stoffe der Weltliteratur (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner, 1983), 267.
- 14.
Hans Lindström, Strindberg och böckerna (Uppsala: Svenska Litteratursällskapet, 1977), 128.
- 15.
Martin Lamm, Strindbergs dramer II (Stockholm: Bonnier, 1926), 138.
- 16.
Martin Lamm, August Strindberg II (Stockholm: Bonnier, 1948), 83. All translations from Swedish are made by the chapter’s authors. In a few cases the syntax has been changed to improve readability.
- 17.
Stefan Bohman, “Strindberg, Gustav Vasa och recensenterna”, in Strindbergiana, vol 31, eds. David Gedin and Cecilia Carlander (Stockholm: Atlantis, 2016), 190.
- 18.
August Strindberg, Strindberg on Drama and Theatre: A Source Book, eds. Egil Törnqvist and Birgitta Steene (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007), 168.
- 19.
Strindberg, Strindberg on Drama and Theatre, 158.
- 20.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, “Hamburg Dramaturgy”, in Theatre/Theory/Theatre: the major critical texts from Aristotle and Zeami to Soyinka and Havel, ed. Daniel Gerould (New York: Applause, 2003), 238.
- 21.
Strindberg, Strindberg on Drama and Theatre, 160.
- 22.
Lizzy Lind af Hageby, August Strindberg: The Spirit of Revolt: Studies and Impressions (London: Stanley Paul, 1913), 291.
- 23.
Gunnar Brandell, Drama i tre avsnitt (Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 1971), 140.
- 24.
Grosby , Nationalism, 46 ff.
- 25.
Claes Rosenqvist , Hem till historien: August Strindberg, sekelskiftet och “Gustaf Adolf” (Umeå: Umeå universitet, 1984), 101 ff.
- 26.
Larsson , Gustav Vasa, 330 f.
- 27.
All the translated quotes from the play come from August Strindberg, The Vasa Trilogy, trans. Walter Johnson (Seattle: Washington University Press, 1959).
- 28.
Larsson , Gustav Vasa, 210–231.
- 29.
Strindberg, Strindberg on Drama and Theatre, 168.
- 30.
Göran Lindström, “Kommentar”, in Gustav Vasa, by August Strindberg (Lund: Gleerup, 1964), 161.
- 31.
August Strindberg, Open Letters to the Intimate Theater, ed. Walter Johnson (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966), 264.
- 32.
The play has been critically examined along these lines since it was first published. See for example Harald Hjärne, “Strindbergs historiska skådespel”, Svenska Dagbladet, 15 November 1900.
- 33.
Lindström, “Kommentar”, 162.
- 34.
Rosenqvist , Hem till historien, 100.
- 35.
B ohman, “Strindberg, Gustav Vasa och recensenterna”, 199.
- 36.
Per Ringby, Författarens dröm på scenen: Harald Molanders regi och författarskap (Umeå: Umeå universitet, 1987), 335 ff.
- 37.
Tor Hedberg, “Gustaf Vasa”, Svenska Dagbladet, 18 October 1899.
- 38.
Pehr Staaff, “Strindbergs ‘Gustaf Vasa’” Dagens Nyheter, 18 October 1899.
- 39.
The list of productions makes no claims to completeness. Information has been gathered from Michael Robinson , An international annotated bibliography of Strindberg studies 1870–2005. Vol. 2, The plays (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2008) and Gunnar Ollén, Strindbergs dramatik (Stockholm: Sveriges Radio, 1982).
- 40.
The reason it took forty years before the play was performed on the national stage is hard to clarify. Part of the explanation could be that the Royal Dramatic Theatre and the Swedish Theatre fought a tug of war over the premiere of the play in 1899, a battle lost by the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Rosenqvist , Hem till historien, 77 ff.; Stig Torsslow, Dramatenaktörernas republik: Dramatiska teatern under associationstiden 1888–1907 (Stockholm: Dramatiska teatern, 1975), 283 ff.).
- 41.
Herbert Grevenius, “Gustav Vasa på Dramaten”, Stockholms-Tidningen, 4 November 1939.
- 42.
Oscar Rydqvist, “‘Gustav Vasa’ på Dramaten”, Dagens Nyheter, 4 November 1939.
- 43.
P. G. Pettersson, “Gustaf Vasa på Dramaten”, Aftonbladet, 4 November 1939.
- 44.
Sten Selander, “‘Gustav Vasa’ på Dramaten”, Svenska Dagbladet, 4 November 1939.
- 45.
Pettersson , “Gustaf Vasa på Dramaten”.
- 46.
Sela nder “‘Gustav Vasa’ på Dramaten”.
- 47.
Nils Beijer, “Stockholmsteater: från Guldbröllop till Mycket väsen för ingenting”, Tiden, no. 2 (1940), 104.
- 48.
Bohman , “Strindberg, Gustav Vasa och recensenterna”, 203.
- 49.
Much has been written about this event and it is still a rather controversial subject, not least the question of whether or not it was wrong to accept the offer of a guest performance and who was to blame, whether the Royal Dramatic Theatre or the Swedish government. See for example Willmar Sauter , Theater als Widerstand. Wirkung und Wirkungsweise eines politischen Theaters. Fascismus und Judendarstellung auf der schwedischen Bűhne 1936–1941 (Stockholm: Akademilitteratur, 1979), Sverker Ek, Spelplatsens magi: Alf Sjöbergs regikonst 1930–1957 (Hedemora: Gidlund, 1988), Per Lysander, “Dramaten bugade djupt för de tyska herrarna.” Dagens Nyheter, 15 April 1997, Hans Jalling, Att buga eller inte buga: En studie i Dramatens förhållande till Nazi-Tyskland 1938–1944 (Hedemora: Gidlunds, 2004), Sverker Ek, “Krigsskugga och budkavle”, in Ny svensk teaterhistoria, vol. 3, 1900-talets teater, eds. Tomas Forser and Sven Åke Heed (Hedemora: Gidlunds förlag, 2007).
- 50.
Gunnar Gunnarson, “Lagerkransar åt Dramaten”, Dagens Nyheter, 19 June 1941.
- 51.
Sauter , Theater als Widerstand, 70.
- 52.
Ek , Spelplatsens magi, 216, see also Ek , “Krigsskugga och budkavle”, 169. There was a rumour that the Jewish character Herman Israel was to be ‘aryanized’ to please the Germans (Ture Nerman, “400-årig jude ‘ariseras’”, Trots Allt!, 6–12 June 1941). But according to Lysander , that rumour was quickly rejected by the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Lysander, “Dramaten bugade djupt för de tyska herrarna”).
- 53.
Gunnarson , “Lagerkransar åt Dramaten”.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
[Unknown], “Dramaten i Berlin”, Stockholms-Tidningen, 20 June 1941.
- 56.
Ture Nerman, “Dramatens gästspel i Berlin. Stor teater i skicklig tysk regi”, Trots Allt!, 4–10 July 1941.
- 57.
This list of productions too makes no claims to completeness. Information has been gathered from Robinson , An international annotated bibliography of Strindberg studies 1870–2005, and Ollén , Strindbergs dramatik.
- 58.
Lena Fridell and Lennart Hjulström, “Gustav Vasa i Göteborg: en regissörs arbete med en text”, in Teaterarbete: Texter för teori och praxis, ed. Kurt Aspelin (Stockholm: Bokförlaget Pan/Norstedts, 1977), 277 f. and 272.
- 59.
Ibid., 287.
- 60.
Ibid., 300. Jan Lewin’s production at Malmö City Theatre in 1970 could be seen as something of a predecessor to Hjulström’s production. In Lewin’s production, too, the opposition between the king and the people was emphasized (see Leif Zern, “Brist på analys i välspelad ‘Gustaf Vasa’”, Dagens Nyheter, 14 November 1970).
- 61.
Per Erik Wahlund, “Majestätet och imperialismen”, Svenska dagbladet, 23 August 1975
- 62.
PO Enquist, “Gustav Vasa – vem är han? Castro? Allende? Stalin?”, Expressen, 23 August 1975.
- 63.
Wahlund , “Majestätet och imperialismen”.
- 64.
Leif Zern , “Hjulström som intressantast”, Dagens Nyheter, 23 August 1975.
- 65.
Fridell and Hjulström “Gustav Vasa i Göteborg”, 280.
- 66.
There was at least one exception to the positive reviews ; from Tord Baeckström’s aesthetically conservative standpoint, the production became a sort of boxing match between Strindberg and the reckless director , where the latter did everything in his power to destroy the former’s magnificent drama (Tord Baeckström, “Strindberg ned för full räkning”, Göteborgs handels- och sjöfartstidning, 29 August 1975).
- 67.
Enquist , “Gustav Vasa”.
- 68.
Mario Grut, “Gustav Vasa – på avstånd”, Aftonbladet, 24 August 1975.
- 69.
Robinson , An international annotated bibliography of Strindberg studies 1870–2005.
- 70.
For critical voices, see Lisbeth Larsson, “En alltför scenfärdig kung”, Expressen, 4 September 1994 and Leif Zern, “1534 års upplaga av Generation X”, Dagens Nyheter, 4 September 1994. For a more positive review , see Lars Ring , Svenska Dagbladet, “En härlig historielektion”, 4 September 1994; Ring appreciated the production’s parallels between the sixteenth century and late-twentieth-century postmodernism, with regard to “the mess of empty ideologies, quasi-religions and relativism”.
- 71.
Strindberg’s Gustav III and Kristina (Queen Kristina) served as Act II and III in this collage. All the plays were shortened, Gustav Vasa coming in at just over an hour instead of the usual —three to four hours. The three plays were performed under the title Tre kronor (Three Crowns) (Tre kronor, DVD, directed by Åsa Kalmér, Jagos Markovic and Maria Åberg, recorded on 21 January 2008, Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, accessed on 15 August 2017).
- 72.
Leif Zern, “Kristina räddar August på Dramaten”, Dagens Nyheter, 13 January 2008.
- 73.
Claes Wahlin, “Hovintriger i ny kostym”, Aftonbladet, 13 January 2008.
- 74.
Lars Ring, “Monarkmaraton utan konstnärliga triumfer”, Svenska Dagbladet, 13 January 2008.
- 75.
Vasasagan was made in close collaboration with dramaturges Stellan Larsson and Karen-Maria Bille and scenographer Bente Lykke Møller. The original 1400 manuscript pages were reduced by 80 percent (Birgitta Smiding, Den stora mekanismen i Holm/Møllers Vasasagan (Lund: Lund University, 2006), 14). Vasasagan was also recorded in television and radio versions.
- 76.
Smiding , Den stora mekanismen, 119.
- 77.
Claes Wahlin, “Hipp, Holm och Vasa speglar hovets hierarki”, Aftonbladet, 22 March 1998; Jan Olov Ullén, “Vasasagan”, Sveriges radio (Kulturnytt), 23 March 1998, accessed on 15 August 2017.
- 78.
Smiding , Den stora mekanismen, 68.
- 79.
Ibid., 117.
- 80.
Ibid., 228.
- 81.
See especially the ‘Saltsjöbaden agreement’ in 1938, a treaty between the major trade union (LO) and the Swedish Employers Association (SAF). The agreement, which has been a central part of the ‘Nordic model’ in Sweden, strives to make the parties of the labour market cooperate and reach consensus instead of conflict, the so-called ‘Saltsjöbaden spirit’. Avoiding conflict has also been considered a Swedish character trait more generally (Johansson , “Svensk nationalism och identitet efter andra världskriget”, 12).
- 82.
Smiding , Den stora mekanismen, 229.
- 83.
Vasasagan , directed by Staffan Valdemar Holm (theatre) and Jan Hemmel (television), produced by Sveriges Television, 1998, accessed on 15 August 2017. The hymn, which could almost be considered an alternative national anthem, treats the coming of summer. Its title can be translated into English as “The time of blossom is coming”.
- 84.
Grosby , Nationalism, 68; Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, revised edition (London/New York: Verso, 2006), 6.
- 85.
Ingegärd Waaran perä, “‘Vasasagan’ en lysande bragd”, Dagens Nyheter, 22 March 1998.
- 86.
Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, second edition (Malden: Blackwell, 2007), 35.
- 87.
Lamm , Strindbergs dramer II, 124. Lamm was not the first to discuss Gustav Vasa in terms of a ‘national drama’, but with his authority as an expert on Strindberg his use of the label was presumably of greater importance. It was during the second half of the twentieth century that the play’s status as national drama was really consolidated. From the 1939/1941 production onwards the term is seen in most of the reviews of the various productions.
- 88.
See for example Niklas Ekdal and Petter Karlsson, Historiens 100 viktigaste svenskar (Stockholm: Forum, 2009). The book presents a list of what the authors consider to be the hundred most important Swedes in history, with Gustav Vasa as number one and Strindberg as number fourteen.
- 89.
Anderson , Imagined Communities.
- 90.
Grosby , Nationalism, 46 ff.
- 91.
For a nuanced discussion, see John Hutchinson, “Cultural Nationalism”, in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism, ed. John Breuilly (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); see also John Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism (London: Allen & Unwin, 1987).
- 92.
Johansson , “Svensk nationalism och identitet efter andra världskriget”, 10; see also Bengt Lindroth, Väljarnas hämnd: populism och nationalism i Norden (Stockholm: Carlsson, 2016), 241 f.
- 93.
The use of the metaphor ‘folkhemmet’ has to some extent been taken over by the right-wing nationalists of the Sweden Democrats. According to Berggren and Trädgårdh, this has been made possible since the metaphor has largely been discarded by the left-wing parties; the ‘left nationalism ’ that was previously one of the characteristics of the Social Democratic Party, has been partly abandoned, leaving the floor clear for right-wing nationalism instead (Berggren and Trägårdh, Är svensken människa, 445 ff.).
- 94.
Furthermore, the metaphor of the founding father gives the appearance of the nation as something with a definite starting point, as something produced by one person in a grand creative gesture or, in Grosby’s words, “a manufactured product designed by an engineer”. However, nations rather “emerge over time as a result of numerous historical processes (Grosby , Nationalism, 23).
- 95.
Johansson , “Svensk nationalism och identitet efter andra världskriget”, 14 f.
- 96.
To a lesser extent, this also holds good vice versa, i.e. that the stagings of Strindberg’s play reproduce and strengthen Vasa’s position as a national symbol.
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Mattsson, E., Törnqvist, E. (2018). Strindberg’s Gustav Vasa and the Performance of Swedish Identity – from Celebration to Introspective Critique. In: van der Poll, S., van der Zalm, R. (eds) Reconsidering National Plays in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75334-8_5
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