Vicente Sanchis

Fredag (Friday), 15:30–16:00, H135a

Affiliering (affiliation): Conservatori Superior de Música de València, 

Abstract

“Human nature vs naturally human in August Strindberg's Klostret” 

August Strindberg wrote Klostret following a series of events in his life which would lead him to a traumatic period of despair. From August Strindberg's numerous travels, it seems that the Swedish author was not very happy anywhere. However, Strindberg always moved around Nordic-Germanic latitudes, with the exception of his stay in Paris between 1894 and 1896. And so, he arrived in Berlin, capital of a Germany in which culture and genius flourished. The events portrayed in Klostret deal with his period in Berlin, moment in which he encountered a wide variety of people. The human nature depicted in this book is the object of this paper. From relatives to friends, artists and ordinary people, different sexual orientations, vivid lifestyles… all of these are part of the plot of this astonishing narration of Strindberg’s life in Berlin, which is an antecedent of the arrival of Spanish (and other) artists in Paris a few years later. These events were crucial for the development of art in the 20th century, but Klostret was published for the first time in Spanish in 2024, more than 120 years after it was written.

Om (about):

Vicente R. Sanchis Caparrós (Valencia, 1973) is currently a professor in English Language and Literature at the Conservatori Superior de Música de València, Spain. He has translated several works by Shakespeare, Dickens or Blake, as well as three plays by Strindberg into Spanish, Fröken Julie, Fadren and Fordringsägare. He has been a teacher at the Universitat Politècnica de València, where he developed his skills as an author for Cambridge University Press. After his studies at The University of Stockholm, he is about to finish the first thesis in Spain about August Strindberg as a literary figure, which he will defend at the Universitat de València, Spain. He has also published his own literary works in the forms of poetry (Estocolmo, Aquí y ahora. Miradas al mar.) and short stories (Ocho mujeres). He has been the head of the International Office at the Conservatori Superior de Música de València since 2022.