Vilhelm Ekelund and the Franco-Italian cultural sphere A few descending laws in the early prose works - from Antique ideal (1909) to Attic in Bird Perspective (1919)

The Swedish poet, essayist and aphorist Vilhelm Ekelund was not only influenced by German literature and philosophy, he also wrote extensive literary criticism on the subject of Romance language authors. This article discusses Ekelund’s relationship to some of the most influen­tial French and Italian writers — as it can be seen in his work during the period 1909–1919. This relationship was ambiguous: he paid homage to French authors such as Montaigne, Mon­tesquieu, Stendhal and Comte — as well as to the Italian poet and philosopher Leopardi – but he also severely criticized such distinguished writers as Baudelaire, Rousseau and Maupassant. One conclusion of this article is that the authors praised by Ekelund all venerate the Greek and Roman cultural heritage, whereas the despised novelists and poets were, in his opinion, either too “modern” or too “feminine” — both highly pejorative adjectives in the author’s ter­minology. It is also noted that Ekelund’s most ferocious attacks date from the first part of the decade, before he entered a more harmonic period with the works Metron (1918) and Attiskt i fågelperspektiv (1919).