”Djuret med många huvud” : Shakespeares Coriolanus 1866 i skuggan av svenska demokratiseringen

Sammanfattning: This essay examines the conditions for translation into Swedish, and reception of Shakespeare’s dramatic works during the 19th century. By looking at the critical discussion around Shakespeare in Sweden from 1790 until 1850, and the biographies of several translators, the conclusion is that the Romantic movement was a crucial component in introducing his plays, as well as a modernization of political and literary culture after the French revolution. The essay also aims to tie a specific play – The Tragedy of Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare’s later tragedies – which was performed in Stockholm in 1866 to the political conditions of modernity, with its focus on class struggle and the taming of public opinion. The play dramatizes the for democracy as against aristocracy and tyranny – an issue well alive in the late 19th century. By situating the text of the play as a narratological homology for political and capitalist modernity, Shakespeare is brought into sharp relief as a thoroughly modern playwright, whose problems still concern us today.