The Poetics and Contexts of Olof von Dalin’s Occasional Verse

Though undisputed, Olof von Dalin’s (1708–63) central position in 18th-century Swedish literature has not yet been adequately described. This is particularly true of his occasional verse.

The thesis underlying this project is that Dalin, by assuming a variety of fictive identities, makes important contributions to the literary and political discussion of his times, and that his use of this intricate technique has not yet been understood and described so that his many-faceted interventions are made clear. My project has two aspects: on the one hand, it is text-oriented, directed towards the character, form, and ideational content of individual poems; on the other hand, I examine the poems' contexts of publication (they usually circulated as manuscripts, not in printed form), their probable audience and their position in different areas of public life.

Dalin is unique in assuming roles that allowed him – in contrast to most other contemporary poets – to represent himself. The aim of his assumption of poetic roles was to render public and disseminate his own thoughts on a variety of areas, ranging from aesthetics to politics; thus, he was able to avoid voicing the opinions of others, as most poets did.