A Fire in Her Mind: Medicine, Gender Identity, and Strindberg's "Miss Julie"

To get at these tantalizing questions, we will spend several weeks this summer digging into Strindberg’s troubling masterpiece of the Naturalist genre, first from a literary standpoint, then from a performative standpoint, and examining the play’s potential as proto-text for other work. We will also work closely with Dr. Monique Bourque, science and medicine historian, to identify selected texts which may have informed Strindberg’s understanding of human nature, the natural, sexuality, and psychology. Student collaborators will then be invited to re-imagine Strindberg’s text in a variety of ways: text/analysis projects, playwriting, performance and/or devised works, or a mix. Group or solo projects are possible; the scope and range will be negotiated within the group.