The Odd Couple: Strindberg and Roth

Abstract: At first glance, it would seem that Philip Roth and August Strindberg, Swedish dramatist, novelist, social critic, and iconoclast, share little. However, a careful comparison of the two authors reveals numerous connections. Roth owned a series of Strindberg texts and commentaries and drew from his plays and life in a number of his works. This discussion not only highlights connections between the two authors but also explores why Roth felt a union, personally and thematically, with Strindberg. Whether it was women, marriage, Judaism, or sex, Strindberg and Roth united. Additionally, like Strindberg, Roth found monogamy difficult, while railing against female dishonesty. “When it comes to war, women have their own rules” (24), Strindberg wrote in The Father (1887). Roth never forgot it as he demonstrates that marriage is a battleground where love and hate coexist.