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Esaias Tegnrs (17821846) frfattarskap bildade lnge centrum i den svenska kanon, och ansgs enligt utlndska bedmare utgra Sveriges frmsta bidrag till vrldslitteraturen. P s vis har det haft stor betydelse fr svl den inhemska som den utlndska frestllningen om svensk kultur. Funktionen som enande nationalsymbol har Tegnr sedan lnge frlorat, ven om mnga fortfarande hller honom hgt som poet. Parallellt med detta har hans texter i allt lgre grad kommit att intressera litteraturvetenskapen. Men en situation efter Tegnr, i vilken hans nrvaro i kulturen inte r lika sjlvklar, kan istllet innebra att nya infallsvinklar frilggs och att intressanta sidor av hans texter kan trda fram p nytt. I detta syfte har sex yngre forskare i Lund valt att nrma sig Tegnr utifrn sina egna forskningsintressen. I antologins frsta del ges litteraturhistoriska perspektiv p Tegnrs relation till 1700-talet och till den romantiska rrelsen, och hans erotiska diktning undersks utifrn ett genreperspektiv. I den andra delen frilggs ett retoriskt mnster som kommer till uttryck genom cirkelformens skilda figurer, och Tegnrs verskonst beskrivs i ljuset av kognitiva och semiotiska teorier. I den avslutande diskuteras bilder av Tegnr som en gestalt p grnsen mellan fiktion och biografi, och hur hans dikter fungerat som rmaterial fr poeter frn 1900- och 2000-talet. *** Esaias Tegnr (17821846) was for a long time considered not only Swedens foremost poet but also a national symbol, an author who defined the characteristics of Swedish culture. Tegnrs status as the national poet has long since dwindled, and along with it, the attention paid to his work by literary scholars. This volume sets out to prove that the last of these developments should not necessarily flow from the first. Writing in a situation when Tegnrs presence in Swedish culture is much less marked, six younger scholars approach the poems of Tegnr from the angle of their individual research interests to offer fresh readings of one of the most studied oeuvres in Swedish literature. The articles in the first part treat Tegnrs relation to 18th century forms of public poetry, his erotic poems and the question of manuscript culture. In the second part, the central patterns of his poetry in the context of romantic metaphysics are reexamined, as well as his metrical art, in the light of cognitive and semiotic theories. The third part concerns aspects of the Tegnr tradition in Swedish culture: his role as a character in fictional and biographical representations, and the use of his work as raw material by 20th and 21h century poets. Together, the articles demonstrate the lasting interest of Tegnrs works and the need to revisit them from new angles.