Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective and environment. He published more than 20 novels, a collection of poetry, some short stories and plays, a travelogue, works of non-fiction and some essays.

Hamsun is considered to be "one of the most influential and innovative literary stylists of the past hundred years" (''ca.'' 1890–1990). He pioneered psychological literature with techniques of stream of consciousness and interior monologue, and influenced authors such as Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Maxim Gorky, Stefan Zweig, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, John Fante and Ernest Hemingway. Isaac Bashevis Singer called Hamsun "the father of the modern school of literature in his every aspect—his subjectiveness, his fragmentariness, his use of flashbacks, his lyricism. The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun". Since 1916, several of Hamsun's works have been adapted into motion pictures. On 4 August 2009, the Knut Hamsun Centre was opened in Hamarøy.

The young Hamsun objected to realism and naturalism. He argued that the main object of modernist literature should be the intricacies of the human mind, that writers should describe the "whisper of blood, and the pleading of bone marrow". Hamsun is considered the "leader of the Neo-Romantic revolt at the turn of the 20th century", with works such as ''Hunger'' (1890), '' Mysteries'' (1892), '' Pan'' (1894), and ''Victoria'' (1898). His later works—in particular his " Nordland novels"—were influenced by the Norwegian new realism, portraying everyday life in rural Norway and often employing local dialect, irony, and humour. Hamsun only published one poetry collection, ''The Wild Choir'', which has been set to music by several composers.

Hamsun had strong anti-English views, and openly supported Adolf Hitler and Nazi ideology. Due to his professed support for the German occupation of Norway, he was charged with treason after the war. He was not convicted, due to what was deemed psychological problems and issues with old age.

Biography

Early life

Knut Hamsun was born as Knud Pedersen in Lom in the Gudbrandsdal valley of Norway. He was the fourth son (of seven children) of Tora Olsdatter and Peder Pedersen. When he was three, the family moved to Hamsund, Hamarøy in Nordland. They were poor and an uncle had invited them to farm his land for him.

At nine Knut was separated from his family and lived with his uncle Hans Olsen, who needed help with the post office he ran. Olsen used to beat and starve his nephew, and Hamsun later stated that his chronic nervous difficulties were due to the way his uncle treated him.

In 1874 he finally escaped back to Lom. For the next five years he did any job for money; he was a store clerk, peddler, shoemaker's apprentice, sheriff's assistant, and an elementary-school teacher.

At 17 he became a ropemaker's apprentice; at about the same time he started to write. He asked businessman Erasmus Zahl to give him significant monetary support, and Zahl agreed. Hamsun later used Zahl as a model for the character ''Mack'' appearing in his novels '' Pan'' (1894), ''Dreamers'' (1904), ''Benoni'' (1908) and ''Rosa'' (1908).

He spent several years in America, traveling and working at various jobs, and published his impressions under the title ''Fra det moderne Amerikas Aandsliv'' (1889).

Early literary career

Working all those odd jobs paid off, and he published his first book: ''Den Gaadefulde: En Kjærlighedshistorie fra Nordland'' (''The Enigmatic Man: A Love Story from Northern Norway'', 1877). It was inspired from the experiences and struggles he endured from his jobs.

In his second novel ''Bjørger'' (1878), he attempted to imitate Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's writing style of the Icelandic saga narrative. The melodramatic story follows a poet, Bjørger, and his love for Laura. This book was published under the pseudonym Knud Pedersen Hamsund. This book later served as the basis for ''Victoria: En Kærligheds Historie'' (1898; translated as ''Victoria: A Love Story'', 1923)..

As of 1898 Hamsun was among the contributors of '' Ringeren'', a political and cultural magazine established by Sigurd Ibsen.

Major works

Hamsun first received wide acclaim with his 1890 novel ''Hunger'' (''Sult''). The semiautobiographical work described a young writer's descent into near madness as a result of hunger and poverty in the Norwegian capital of Kristiania (modern name Oslo). To many, the novel presages the writings of Franz Kafka and other twentieth-century novelists with its internal monologue and bizarre logic.

A theme to which Hamsun often returned is that of the perpetual wanderer, an itinerant stranger (often the narrator) who shows up and insinuates himself into the life of small rural communities. This wanderer theme is central to the novels '' Mysteries'', '' Pan'', '' Under the Autumn Star'', ''The Last Joy'', ''Vagabonds'', ''Rosa'', and others.

Hamsun's prose often contains rapturous depictions of the natural world, with intimate reflections on the Norwegian woodlands and coastline. For this reason, he has been linked with the spiritual movement known as pantheism ("No one knows God," he once wrote, "man knows
only gods."). Hamsun saw mankind and nature united in a strong, sometimes mystical bond. This connection between the characters and their natural environment is exemplified in the novels ''Pan'', ''A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings'', and the epic ''Growth of the Soil'', "his monumental work" credited with securing him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1920.

World War II, arrest and trial

During World War II, Hamsun put his support behind the German war effort. He courted and met with high-ranking Nazi officers, including Adolf Hitler. Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels wrote a long and enthusiastic diary entry concerning a private meeting with Hamsun; according to Goebbels Hamsun's "faith in German victory is unshakable". In 1940 Hamsun wrote that "the Germans are fighting for us". After Hitler's death, he published a short obituary in which he described him as "a warrior for mankind" and "a preacher of the gospel of justice for all nations."

After the war, he was detained by police on 14 June 1945, for treason, then committed to a hospital in Grimstad ('' Grimstad sykehus'') "due to his advanced age", according to Einar Kringlen (a professor and medical doctor). In 1947 he was tried in Grimstad, and fined. Norway's supreme court reduced the fine from 575,000 to 325,000 Norwegian kroner.

After the war, Hamsun's views on the Germans during the war were a serious grief for the Norwegians, and they tried to separate their world-famous writer from his Nazi beliefs. At the trial Hamsun had pleaded ignorance. Deeper explanations involve his contradictory personality, his distaste for ''hoi polloi'', his inferiority complex, a profound distress at the spread of indiscipline, antipathy toward the interwar democracy, and especially his anglophobia.

Death

Knut Hamsun died on 19 February 1952, aged 92, in Grimstad. His ashes are buried in the garden of his home at Nørholm.

Legacy

Thomas Mann described him as a "descendant of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Friedrich Nietzsche." Arthur Koestler was a fan of his love stories. H. G. Wells