Litteraturens uppodling : Läsesällskap och litteraturkritik som politisk strategi kring sekelskiftet 1800

Sammanfattning: The aim of the dissertation is to study the distribution of literature as a means to disseminate knowledge in the context of two reading societies and three critical journals based in Uppsala and Åbo. This dissemination, regarded as a strategy towards social and political reform, took place in these societies and journals, which were geographically, biographically, intentionally and functionally connected.I argue that the distribution of literature was part of a cultivation scheme in which intellectuals engaged towards the end of the 18th century, including both commonly held reform eorts and controversial enlightenment thought. The belief in progress, the power of knowledge and the possibilities to improve society, industry, religion and the sciences, were the basis of the cultivation scheme. The immediate target group for the cultivation scheme was "the educated classes" - the social elite inuencing the larger public through schools, churches, newspapers and by setting examples in their immediate surroundings as well as through legal, political and economic decisions.The reading societies were founded in Uppsala 1797 and Åbo 1798. Their collections of books and periodicals have been examined from the foundation and 15-20 years onwards. The reviews in Litteratur-Tidning (Uppsala, 1795-1797), Journal för Svensk Litteratur (Uppsala & Stockholm, 1797-1812) and Allmän Litteratur-Tidning (Åbo, 1803) were written and edited by members and/or initiators of the reading societies Pehr Afzelius (1760-1843), Anders Gustaf Ekeberg (1767-1813), Frans Michael Franzén (1772-1847), Johan Gadolin (1760-1852), Benjamin Höijer (1767-1812), Henrik Gabriel Porthan (1739-1804), Gustaf Abraham Silverstolpe (1772-1824) and Jacob Tengström (1755-1832).