MARTIN HUMPÀL: HAMSU'S MODERNISM
Today, Hamsun's writing is often called modernist. But this designation is quite problematic, it is only partially correct. It is difficult to find arguments to claim that all of Hamsun's writing is modernist. Aesthetically, most of the novels he wrote in the 20th century represent realistic literature. However, there is little doubt that some of Hamsun's early works are groundbreaking modernist texts. This is especially true of Hunger and Mysteries, and to some extent also Pan and Victoria. Both thematically and narratively, these texts can be compared to the novels that are most often associated with the concept of modernism in literature, that is, the works of authors such as Joyce, Woolf, Kafka and Proust.
In the aforementioned early novels by Hamsun, several typical modernist themes can be found: alienation, division, existential emptiness and the longing for an authentic way of life. In other words, the author emphasizes themes that primarily concern the human soul, or the human mind. Hamsun was of the opinion that contemporary realistic and naturalistic novels depicted humans in a superficial way. Despite their individualized character and often psychological depth, realistic and naturalistic literary figures were representatives of certain human types, and one of the basic functions of these figures was to illuminate general social conditions. This was one of the ways in which literature guaranteed objectivity and closeness to reality. In contrast, the modernists, including the young Hamsun, believed that people as certain types within a social context are only an artificial construction that is used to make reality more tangible. The intended objectivity in realistic depictions of humans is therefore only an illusion – literature cannot avoid being subjective. All people are unique individuals, even if they do not always behave as such in external social life. The area where the individual is most strongly expressed is the human mind, and it was this area in particular that the modernists were concerned with. The young Hamsun also concentrated on subjectivity to an outstanding degree: the main characters in his early novels are great individualists, indeed exceptional people (or at least they strive to become exceptional people). Moreover, they often behave irrationally.
The irrational plays an important role in Hamsun's treatment of subjectivity. The protagonists in the aforementioned novels are often characterized by erratic behavior because their inner selves are full of contradictions, and because they are guided by impulses from the unconscious. Hamsun was one of the first European writers to set himself the task of showing how the unconscious can influence human life. His early novels depict in detail the complicated dynamics between consciousness and the subconscious. The characters in these works behave quite differently from ordinary people, not only because their way of acting or thinking sometimes forms part of their conscious resistance to social conventions, but also because they are forced into bizarre behavior by the irrepressible forces of their subconscious. Because of this erraticity that breaks with logic and rationality, Hamsun's early literary characters are constantly changing: They lack psychological integrity and a fixed identity. This psychological variability of Hamsun's characters is one of the most characteristic features of his modernism.
The great emphasis Hamsun places on the depiction of the intricate nature of the human mind is also expressed in the form of the texts: The aforementioned novels contain many long passages that focus on the inner world of the main characters. Hamsun intensively uses several different narrative techniques for this purpose, including stream of consciousness or interior monologue. These are concepts that are most often associated with modernist prose when it comes to narrative techniques. In the extensive use of such techniques (see especially chapters 4 and 18 in Mysteries ), Hamsun was truly ahead of his time. The techniques did not begin to be used to a similar extent by a larger number of authors until a couple of decades later. But Hamsun also adapts other techniques to his purposes. For example, he constructs some spoken monologues in such a way that they resemble an interior monologue or a stream of consciousness. The reader may perceive them as such because of their length, spontaneity, their contradictions, and confusing leaps of thought (see, for example, Nagel's speech to the Minute in the second half of chapter 10 of Mysteries ).
Hamsun's intensive artistic exploration of how the subconscious and conscious work, together with the innovative techniques he used to depict the dynamic universe of the mind, make him a significant figure in the history of modernism. Both thematically and narratively, he anticipated much of later modernist literature and influenced several writers outside the Nordic region. Therefore, the young Hamsun can be considered a pioneering modernist, not only in Norway, but also in a European context.
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Martin Humpál is an associate professor at Charles University in Prague and teaches Scandinavian literature. His books include The Roots of Modernist Narrative: Knut Hamsun's Novels Hunger , Mysteries , and Pan (Oslo: Solum Forlag, 1998).
