|
|
Everyone accuses Strindberg of misogyny. For most criticism this is an inert biographical fact, like vegetarianism, whose naming acts as a prophylactic for the critic: 'don't blame me, I freely admit that he hates women.' To say that the patriarchy depends on the legislation of women’s freedom costs us very little, now in the latter half of a fundamental historical shift, but Strindberg’s Fadren stands like Conrad’s fiction as a priceless documentation/revelation of this parallel shift because of course Laura and Bertha must pay, but the "hysterical" Ryttmästern pays as well, for what we know now. Performances of Strindberg are valuable according to how they dramatise this priceless knowledge of who pays, to whom, for what we know now.