What is literature? Why and how must and should it be written? These questions have been debated by writers, readers and academics for millennia. This book pursues a particular track within the ongoing dialogue about fiction: authors' books about the essence of literature.
Writer's poetics is a special genre where writers reflect based on their own practice. At the same time, they often have great ambitions – not just for themselves, but on behalf of literature as a whole. From the idea that poetry must all of Europe after the horrors of the Second World War over a perception of the art of language as the place where we as humans can experience that we exist, to ideals of a dialogic literature that completely obliterates the identity of its sender.
For the first time, the book tells the story of the creation and development of the genre in Denmark over the past 70 years, where authors such as Paul la Cour, Per Højholt, Pia Tafdrup, Kirsten Hammann, Amalie Smith, Mikkel Thykier and many more have published works that are widely different ways take life with the qualities and purposes of literature. Crossing the currents of the period, these works form part of a dialogue that continues to this day – and will undoubtedly continue.
