Från Orfeus till Eurydike : en rörelse i samtida svensk lyrik

Sammanfattning: The Orphic myth takes an important position through the history of poetry. Due to the cultural climate the myth has been assumed either to raise the position of the poet or to discuss the limitations of performed poetry. What I aim at in my thesis is to examine how the basic constellations of the myth are again made use of by Swedish poets during the period 1974-1995, and to give evidence of how a myth loaded, through ages, with established value of symbolizing, can be positioned otherwise so that poets can achieve new, adaptable to what is contemporary, meanings from them. My reasoning is exemplified by readings of poems by sex contemporary Swedish poets. The poets are Katarina Frostenson, Arne Johnsson, Ann Jäderlund, Birgitta Lillpers, Jesper Svenbro and Bruno K. Öijer. I give in my thesis evidence of how the Orphic myth is made use of again, after the 60s when the position of the poet was claimed low, to assert powerful composing and composed Is. It is no longer possible without problematizing to write Orpheus into a dominating position, room must be given to Eurydice. In the thesis I observe her as a token in our time of lack and loss and I trace how this token is made use of. The thesis is structured according to the three Orphic "moments" which Walter Strauss observes in his book Descent and Return. The Orphic Theme in Modern Literature: the power of song; the descent and Eurydice´s second death; the dismemberment. Taking my start in Öijer´s conscious strive to perform a poetical persona equal to the elevated poet I discuss how the poets relate to Orpheus in a time which no longer accepts the central position of the main character. In the chapter about the second moment I discuss if contemporary Swedish poetry can be regarded as elegiac. The chapter mainly gives a discussion about Eurydice in her role as a token of grief and loss. In the chapter about the third moment I point out some of the rhetorical methods the poets I have examined make use of to problematize in different ways our notions of what poetry is. I also point out how they hover between the limitations and the triumph of performing poetry. The thesis is closed with a discussion on the strategies and perspectives related to the myth the readings elucidate. Here the difference which female and male poets give proof of when they deal with and problematize the narration of our time on poetry, the positions of poets and gender is of importance. In different ways the poets scrutinize the relations between man-woman, centre-periphery, Orpheus-Eurydice, which results in a movement where what has been marginalized approaches the centre and Eurydice is given positions which hitherto were reserved for Orpheus.