Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun was a renowned Norwegian writer, born as Knud Pedersen. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's career spanned over 70 years, showcasing a remarkable variation in consciousness, subject, perspective, and environment. He published more than 23 novels, a collection of poetry, short stories, plays, a travelogue, non-fiction works, and essays.
Hamsun is considered one of the most influential and innovative literary stylists of the past century. He pioneered psychological literature, utilizing techniques like stream of consciousness and interior monologue, influencing notable authors such as Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Maxim Gorky, Stefan Zweig, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, John Fante, James Kelman, Charles Bukowski, and Ernest Hemingway. Isaac Bashevis Singer hailed Hamsun as "the father of the modern school of literature," emphasizing his subjectiveness, fragmentariness, flashbacks, and lyricism.
Several of Hamsun's works have been adapted into films, and his legacy includes the Knut Hamsun Centre, inaugurated in HamarΓΈy Municipality in 2009. Hamsun critiqued realism and naturalism, advocating for modernist literature to explore the human mind's intricacies, describing the "whisper of blood, and the pleading of bone marrow." He led the Neo-Romantic revolt with works like Hunger (1890), Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894), and Victoria (1898).
His later works, particularly the "Nordland novels," were influenced by Norwegian new realism, portraying rural Norway's daily life with local dialect, irony, and humor. Hamsun published a solo poetry collection, The Wild Choir, which inspired several composers.
However, Hamsun's controversial anglophobic views, partly due to Norway's treatment during World War I, led him to support Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. He even met Hitler during Norway's German occupation. For his support of the occupation and the Quisling regime, Hamsun faced treason charges post-war. Although not convicted due to psychological issues and old age, he was fined heavily in 1948. His final book, On Overgrown Paths, written in semi-imprisonment, addressed these accusations.
