Counterattack Of Julie: Feministic Reading Of August Strindbergs Miss Julie

Miss Julie is mostly misjudged as an anti-feminism play reiterating patriarchy especially in that the author himself claims to be a misogynist. According to Strindbergs preface to the play, he is exerting his offense against female subjectivity as far as he could; however, regardless of what the playwright intended or believed, the text itself rather subverts and criticizes traditional male-oriented society. This study will explore how Miss Julie originally purposed to trample female subjectivity wrought the counter-effect, based on textual evidences such as characterization of the main character (Julie), theatrical devices, and the ending. Before delving into the text, stereotypical representations of female characters prevalent in texts written by male authors in the nineteenth century will be presented as one of three frameworks to demonstrate how female representations in Miss Julie is different from that. Also as mentioned above, previous studies predominant views of the play will be introduced briefly. Furthermore, similarities between the play and other feminism texts will be presented as a schema to illustrate how Miss Julie can be viewed feministic. Feministic reading of Miss Julie is significant in terms of the fact that the play is written by a male misogynist playwright in the nineteenth century. It not only deconstructs another stereotype that only women are able to discuss feminism by reevaluating the male playwrights work from a different perspective but also has possibilities to resonate more. This study is expected to contribute to the academia by encouraging the values of rereading and rediscovering texts.