Hamsundagenes Literature Seminar
Welcome to Hamsundagene and the Literature Seminar. Hamsundagene is very pleased to be able to present its own two-day literature seminar at this year's festival. The seminar has been developed in collaboration with the Hamsun Society, veterans in the field, who will open the seminar with the festival's first lecture. This will be held on Hamsun's birthday, August 4, at Hamsun's childhood home in Hamsund.
After the opening in Hamsund, the Literature Seminar continues in the Adventure Hall at The Hamsun Centre The seminar ends on Wednesday 5 August at 4:00 PM. The people responsible for the seminar and those who guide us through it all are Alvhild Dvergsdal and Sigurd Stranda , both employees of the academic and research department at The Hamsun Centre .
Day 1: Tuesday, August 4
Official opening at Knut Hamsun's Childhood Home in Hamsund:
11.50 – 12.30 The caring Hamsun
It has been claimed that Hamsun lacks the ability to enter the child's world seriously and share the child's perspective. In the lecture "The Caring Hamsun", cultural historian and author Ivar Roger Hansen shows how Knut Hamsun, on the contrary, expressed understanding, respect and interest in children and young people. In texts spanning over 50 years, Hansen shows examples of Hamsun's commitment to young lives.
The Adventure Hall at The Hamsun Centre :
14.30 Welcome to the Hamsundagenes Literature Seminar 2026 by Alvhild Dvergsdal
14.30 – 15.15 Translating Hamsun into English
In recent years, professor and author Tore Rem, together with translator and professor Terence Cave, have prepared new English translations of Hamsun's books Hunger and Pan . Why were new English translations needed? Why these books by Hamsun? What is new about their translations? Rem and Cave talk about their translation work and give us examples of challenges and solutions.
15.15 – 16.00 About On Overgrown Paths and Hamsun's Relationship with God
Birgitte Furuberg Moe is a literary researcher and associate professor at Nord University.
She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Oslo in 2023 with the thesis “On the genesis of the text and on guilt in Knut Hamsun’s On Overgrown Paths (1949).” The thesis work includes systematic work with letters, drafts and revisions of parts of the manuscript for On Overgrown Paths from 1945 until the final version. In the lecture “On Overgrown Paths and Hamsun’s Relationship to God,” Furberg Moe presents perspectives on the last part of Hamsun’s writing.
16.00 – 16.15 Break
16.15 – 17.15 Short story seminar
Is the time for a reassessment of Knut Hamsun's short stories? A new short story anthology? If so, what criteria should apply to the selection? Literary scholar Sigurd Stranda at The Hamsun Centre introduces and invites to a discussion of these questions. Invited guests will have the floor to argue for what is Hamsun's best short story. During the seminar you will hear contributions from Ståle Dingstad , Truls Nilsen , Lisbeth Wærp , Eirik Vassenden , Rolf Steffensen and Hege Faust .
Day 2: Wednesday, August 5
The Adventure Hall in The Hamsun Centre :
11.30 – 11.35 Welcome by today's seminar leader Sigurd Stranda
11.35 – 12.20 Pan for our time
Professor Ståle Dingstad and Associate Professor Frode L. Boasson prepared a scientific edition of Hunger in 2024. In 2025, a scientific edition of Pan was published, which the two researchers will present in more detail. What are the overall perspectives in the scientific edition? What does the new book add to the new understanding regarding Pan and Knut Hamsun's writing? Professor Henning H. Wærp will finally lead a conversation with Boasson and Dingstad about their latest publication.
12.20 – 13.00 Hamsun's analysis of America's intellectual life
The book From the Spiritual Life of Modern America (1889) is considered one of Hamsun's less serious books. In light of today's political situation in the United States, it may seem as if the author still hit the nail on the head on a number of points. Subject and research manager at The Hamsun Centre Alvhild Dvergsdal gives us insight into this and at the same time asks: Can the analyses of America provide a greater understanding of the modern literary writing that Hamsun was about to start?
13.00 – 13.15 Break
13.15 – 14.00 Sami characters in Hamsun's writings. A survey in light of the Norwegianization policy
Postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Ibsen Studies Beatrice MG Reed talks about a new book project she is leading, which is about Sami characters and motifs in Knut Hamsun's books. An important basis for the project is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report from 2024. Reed presents the research she and project participants Ingri Løkholm Ramberg and Andreas Lødemel are currently working on: Thought process, planned content and some discoveries so far.
14.00 – 14.45 Gendered language in Hamsun's books?
Author and linguist Helene Uri answers the question in a newly written lecture based on analyses of the language in Markens grøde and Pan . The methodology is based on analyses from the book Jeg naken drakk (2024), where Uri examined the ways in which male and female authors write differently.
14.45 – 15.00 Break
15.00 – 15.45 Hamsun's Wanderers
The August figure between control and chaos. Professor Eirik Vassenden is working on a new book about Knut Hamsun's writings, which will be published in 2027. Here he studies the desire for power, order and chaos in Hamsun's fiction. He presents and justifies the book plans in more detail, including a single study on the August figure.
15.45 – 16.00 Round-up and summary