'Horace is dead, but I am alive' : Epic Failure and Satiric Authority in Eighteenth-Century Sweden

• In 1737, Carl Carlsson (Carleson) edited a volume of Swedish poetry, the first of its kind, with the revealing title: “Attempt at the Improvement of Swedish Poetry,” in Swedish “Försök til Swänska Skalde-Konstens uphielpande.” In his introduction to the reader, Carlsson specifically mentions one of the poets included in the collection, Samuel Triewald: “A Swedish Poet has quite enjoy-ably painted and sharply refuted our verse-mongers , just as a certain Boileau did in France [...].”1 Already in 1737, Triewald gained the title “the Swedish Boileau,” and the designation has been repeated by most literary historians since.2 Boileau’s presence does suggest some connection between the famous Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns and the Swedish anthology of 1737. Whereas Carlsson used Boileau, one of the leading Ancients, as an authority strengthening his defense of good poetry, and as a praiseworthy model for Triewald, the French critic’s function within the Swedish literary context of the early eighteenth century remains somewhat obscure. Indeed, Carlsson’s eager appeal for the improvement of Swedish poetry rather seems to imply poetics aligned with the Modern camp.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Literary Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Ancients

Moderns

Boileau

Samuel Triewald

Bengt Lidner

Epic

Satire

Horace

Aristotle

Poetics

litteraturvetenskap

Literature

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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