Page - 244 - in >mcs_lab> - Mobile Culture Studies, Volume 2/2020

Essay „Es ist ein Aberglaube geworden, dass man vom Zugfenster aus nichts sieht.“ Gedanken zu August Strindbergs literarischem Gegenbeweis und eine Zusammenstellung seiner „Zugfensterblicke“ Holger Helm Abstract Late summer, 1886: August Strindberg is travelling across France by train — 3600 km in three weeks, at a maximum speed of 80 km/h. Every day, he spends up to twelve hours in a third-class carriage. In order to interact with the peasant population, he frequently leaves the train. He has recorded the things he researched, observed and heard prior to his trip in two notebooks. Several of these reflections will later become part of a report titled Bland franska bönder, first published in Stockholm in 1889. Earlier research, though fragmentarily, has referred to Strindberg’s reflections on the landscape, as seen through the train window. For the first time, this paper thus provides a comprehensive compilation of Strindberg’s reflections. We follow the spatio-temporal path traced in Strindberg’s diary notes. A literature-cartographic sketch showing the route and major stations of the 1886 itinerary, including schematic train windows framing written excerpts, provides a better illustration. Strindberg’s central statement regarding his views from the train window reads: “It is superstitious that you don’t see anything through the train windows. The truth is that uninterested eyes only see a hedge or a row of telegraph poles. After three years of practicing, however, I was able to report on and draw landscapes, flora, farmsteads, and tools in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Denmark and Sweden through the compartment window.” Prior to his trip through France, Strindberg had educated himself thoroughly. His reflections span a surprising stylistic and textual spectrum, from a rational description of the landscape to more impressionistic sections. In this context, we also discuss the Swedish subtitle of Bland franska bönder: “subjective reseskildringar” — “subjective travelogues”. Finally, a short excursus deals with Strindberg’s experiments — from as far back as 1886 — to take snapshots of the landscape from a moving train. Keywords August Strindberg, train journey through France 1886, Bland franska bönder, Among French Peasants, travel routes in literature-cartographic sketches, photographic experiments during train rides DOI 10.25364/08.6:2020.1.16 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal, Vol. 6 2020, 244–260 Open Access: content is licensed under CC BY 3.0