The modern breakthrough is probably the most significant event in Nordic cultural history. It was then that Nordic literature and the cultural public sphere became modern. But our knowledge of Strindberg, Brandes, Ibsen and the others has stagnated; it has become fixed in the obligatory narratives of school textbooks. Many aspects have been forgotten. By bringing to life the personal drama that lay behind it, I wish to renew interest in the decades around the turn of the 20th century, which were so crucial for us Scandinavians.
