Holberg's comedy

The poetic raptus Holberg himself called the years from 1719-27. This intense creative period has strangely never before been made the subject of a coherent literary study. But here it is now analysed, how the Holbergian comedy arises from works such as Peder Paars and the satire poem and unfolds in his Metamorphosis and Første Levnedsbrev. Many breakthroughs in modern literary studies have enabled a more nuanced analysis of Holberg's comic genres, especially his comedies. It is highly doubtful whether Holberg is a classicist writer, just as the strong tensions in his being make him a very ambiguous rationalist. The thesis contains major analyzes of major works from classical ancient literature: Vergil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses and Aristotle's Poetics, a somewhat infamous work which is given honorable mention here. Both the theater and science have their problems with Holberg. It is one of the main claims of this book that Holberg's work is in many respects self-contradictory, and that a large part of his effect stems from irreconcilable conflicts within them. Against this background, the thesis examines the connection between a comic understanding of life, radical critical thinking and the emergence of modern science. Perhaps a number of modern serious men would benefit greatly from realizing that one of the great laugh-biters of the past belongs among their close ancestors. Apart from a few corrections, this book is an unchanged reissue of the first edition from 1984.