Crizele Inferno ale lui August Strindberg. Deus absconditus şi chipul „încâlcit” al lui Hristos
"Inferno" crises of August Strindberg. Deus absconditus and the "tangled" face of Christ

Summary/Abstract: The autobiographical novel Inferno (written in three parts and in a fractured-poetic French), a parable of suffering and paranoia, a pathological confession or a literary experiment, finds its origins and resources in Strindberg’s bizarre experiences in Paris between 1894-1896 that resulted in the renewal of his fictional writings. Besides, Inferno represents the (untold) story of urban solitude made up of moments of hallucination, inconsolable misfortunes, failed communication with the Invisible, nights of horror, contradictory moods of recovery or renonciation, of apophenia or pareidolia, alchemy, occultism, gnosticism, Swedenborgianism, Pythagoreanism etc. However, considering the exacerbation of the psychotic attacks or the aggravation of the persecution mania, Strindberg believes that his friends, which are now transformed into enemies, try to annihilate him. The fundamental idea is that the writer was born into a sinfully and wicked world in order to be punished for the crimes he had committed in a previous existence. In short, his alter egos are: the miserable Job, Jacob wrestling with the angel, the humanized Christ, the nordic barbarian or the wandering jew Ahasverus. In the end, when the catastrophe is about to occur, all these mental states lead to an apparent reconciliation, Strindberg being under the influence of the Catholic revival at the end of the nineteenth century. From scientist he becomes an occultist, from atheist – a providentialist; consequently, he proclames fimself a ”Confessionless Christian”: ”I feel the hand of our Lord resting over me”. In this paper we shall presume that Strindberg’s distorted Weltanschauung affected his conception of divinity: God or Christ are regarded either as different faces of the devil, or as beneficial/ supreme powers. Furthermore, although Strindberg (also one of the leaders of the Scandinavian movement ”The Modern Breakthrough”) reshapes his sensibility in order to obtain a spectacular/ dramatic effect, the text itself cannot exhaust the layers of interpretation, since the author constantly challenges the reader with unlimited expressions of his internal conflict.

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