Crew | Vågå (NO)
Norwegian novelist, who was awarded theNobel Prize in Literaturein 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to the subject, perspective and environment. He published more than 20 novels, a collection of poetry, some short stories and plays, atravelogue, and some essays. The young Hamsun objected torealismandnaturalism. He argued that the main object ofmodernist literatureshould 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 asHunger(1890),Mysteries(1892),Pan(1894), andVictoria(1898).His later works—in particular his "Nordlandnovels"—were influenced by theNorwegian new realism, portraying everyday life in rural Norway and often employing local dialect, irony, and humour. 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 ofstream of consciousnessandinterior monologue, and influenced authors such asThomas Mann,Franz Kafka,Maxim Gorky,Stefan Zweig,Henry Miller,Hermann Hesse, andErnest Hemingway.Isaac Bashevis Singercalled 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".
* 04.08.1859