As early as 1867, the French novelist Émile Zola had called for a rejection of all artifice in the theatrical arts, as in the novel, demanding that plays be faithful records of behaviour—namely, scientific analyses of life. Zola’s Thérèse Raquin, an 1873 dramatization of his own novel (written in 1867), represents the first consciously naturalistic drama. Zola’s “slice-of-life” technique found fuller expression in Sweden in August Strindberg’s Fröken Julie (1888; Miss Julie), which heralded a new generation of writers whose plays dealt with themes centring on real contemporary society, treated in action and dialogue that looked and sounded like everyday ...(100 of 31765 words)