The empirical study of literature might be tolerated as a discipline, withinliterary studies it remains an unknown, peripheral possibility, that has to dealwith a lot of scepticism and ignorance. Often it is associated with sheer quantitativeresearch, only focusing, moreover, on the contemporary. In this articleI try to show that the empirical approach also can be applied for the study ofliterary history, with attention paid to qualitative aspects. I demonstrate thisby means of empirical research I have done into the Swedish first time poetsof the 1970s. I point out that the empirical study of literature is conceived ofas a methodology that is applied within a specific theoretical framework, thesystemic study of literature.
