<p> </p><p>The image of the poet Gustaf Fröding is the main theme of this essay. It opens with an analysis of the chamber opera <em>Flickan i ögat.</em> This opera has never been translated but a direct translation would be <em>The Girl in the Eye</em>. It refers to a story that when a man looks into the mirror and sees a picture of a girl in his eye, she will be his future love.  Fröding has written a poem "Flickan i ögat" where the person in the poem only observes himself. Based on this motif the libretto paints a period of Gustaf Fröding's life. Fröding proposes to Vivi, a waitress on a restaurant frequented by Fröding. His proposal has been turned downed. The drama then shows a picture of a miserable and unhappy poet in vain looking for love. But the cause is also the poet's narcissistic character and his morbid erotic fantasies.</p><p>This view is compared with the different images of Fröding that have been put forward during the years, from the beginning of 1900 until today. It has changed from the popular, the unhappy, the modernistic and lately the playful Fröding. The Fröding reception has been discussed based on Bourdieu's theory of cultural fields. In the discussed subfield the actors with highest hegemony are shown to be the theorists and critics of literature as well as psychiatrists.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

The image of the poet Gustaf Fröding is the main theme of this essay. It opens with an analysis of the chamber opera Flickan i ögat. This opera has never been translated but a direct translation would be The Girl in the Eye. It refers to a story that when a man looks into the mirror and sees a picture of a girl in his eye, she will be his future love.  Fröding has written a poem "Flickan i ögat" where the person in the poem only observes himself. Based on this motif the libretto paints a period of Gustaf Fröding's life. Fröding proposes to Vivi, a waitress on a restaurant frequented by Fröding. His proposal has been turned downed. The drama then shows a picture of a miserable and unhappy poet in vain looking for love. But the cause is also the poet's narcissistic character and his morbid erotic fantasies. This view is compared with the different images of Fröding that have been put forward during the years, from the beginning of 1900 until today. It has changed from the popular, the unhappy, the modernistic and lately the playful Fröding. The Fröding reception has been discussed based on Bourdieu's theory of cultural fields. In the discussed subfield the actors with highest hegemony are shown to be the theorists and critics of literature as well as psychiatrists.