Peter Seebergs poetik hinsides modernisme og realisme

Abstract

AbstractIn Danish literary historiography, Peter Seeberg (1925–1999) tends to be categorized as a modernist author. However, a few hitherto unknown letters support the assumption that his poetics, from the mid-1960s, rather led him in the direction of an experimental realism, which is alien to modernism. Seeberg simply felt more comfortable with mimesis than with modernism’s anti-mimetic poetics. His deep respect for everyday reality – that can be traced back to ­Seeberg’s university thesis on Nietzsche – manifested itself both in his establishing of a so-called ‘total-archive’ and in the inclusive strategy of genre and composition in his late collections of short stories. In modern Danish literature, Seeberg holds a unique position, which possibly can be compared with the German noncon­formist Arno Schmidt (1914–1979).