Arctic Drama to Sámi Theatre – Cultural Clashes Towards Decolonisation: In Shared Dialogic Spaces

Summary This article deals with the concept of Arctic Drama, which is about how there is a relationship between drama and cultural clashes in the perspective of shared cultures in the northern Scandinavian area, which is defined as arctic in the geographical sense. In this vast area the Sámi people historically and to the present day have been living from reindeer herding in a nomadic lifestyle, giving them a close relationship to nature. Norwegians and Swedes colonised this area historically, especially the coast for fishing.There have been strong cultural clashes since the Viking ages, but colonisation mainly started later by introducing Christianity by force in the 16th century. Since the Romantic age, these ethno-cultural clashes have been reflected in drama and theatre, and some plays by Henrik Ibsen and Knut Hamsun echo these tensions. An independent theatre of the Sámi people as well as of other indigenous people in Greenland and Canada, like the Inuits, would also develop some theatrical strategies based in a dramaturgy that could be described as a “spiral dramaturgy”. Cultural independence has contributed to a decolonisation process, contributing to even out the cultural clashes in theatre and drama, which could be defined as postcolonial towards decolonisation. This article focuses on the area of arctic Scandinavia.

Out of the ruins: Knut Hamsun’s ‘idealism’ and the inheritance of World War I

In 1920, the Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun won the Nobel Prize for literature for his novel Markens grøde ( Growth of the Soil) (1917). This article explores some of the key contexts for this work, highlighting the author’s own ambitions, the reasons why he sided with Germany during the war, and his generally völkisch perspectives on the Germanic and Nordic. It furthermore analyses the early reception of this World War I novel, and how it was first subjected to a number of positive readings and seen as an example of idealism, before being appropriated by Nazism.

George Egerton’s Scandinavian Breakthrough

This chapter brings to light George Egerton’s role as a key mediator of Scandinavian literature. In her most famous collections of short stories, Keynotes (1893) and Discords (1894), Egerton used Scandinavian settings in order to portray women’s experience of international mobility, drawing attention to the importance of gender in the construction of cosmopolitan identities. After the success of her early works, Egerton produced pioneering English translations of works by Norwegian future Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun and Swedish decadent Ola Hansson. Egerton practised literary translation as a form of creative collaboration and used it to advocate Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. The chapter concludes with an analysis of Egerton’s involvement in the aborted ‘Northern Light’ series, a venture planned by the influential progressive publisher John Lane in order to bring modern Scandinavian literature to English readers.

Claudio Magris e il mondo nordico. Uno scambio fecondo

The current article is aimed to outline a first review of the solid relationship of Claudio Magris with the Nordic world, both from the perspective of his reception in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and from the study of his fecund encounter with the works of authors like Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Jens Peter Jacobsen, Herman Bang and others. These authors, whose works were partially translated by Magris, eventually played a meaningful role in his own writing. Besides affirming himself as a relevant voice in the Scandinavian context, his work as a mediator for Nordic literature has made him a reference point for Scandinavian studies in our country.

Dostoevsky through Western Optics: the Case of Knut Hamsun and not only

The article dwells on the main postulates on Dostoevsky at the meeting point for Russian and Western types of reception of his figure, as they were manifested during a discussion devoted to the writer in the Parisian Franco-Russian Studio in December 1929. Against this background, a specific and typologically indicative case of his deep impact on a European writer — Knut Hamsun whom critics could call “the Norwegian Dostoevsky” — is examined. The author analyzes typical cases of adaptation of the techniques of the Russian writer by this Scandinavian novelist, as well as an assessment of his work by the creator of “Hunger” and “Mysteries”.

dia de fome em Cristiânia: tradução das primeiras páginas do romance Sult, de Knut Hamsun

Tencionamos, em primeiro lugar, problematizar de modo breve as interferências que as escolhas estilísticas e/ou lexicais do tradutor podem ter sobre a linguagem do autor traduzido, tomando como único exemplo alguns trechos de Fome, de Knut Hamsun, na tradução de Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Tais interferências, neste caso, são amplificadas de modo especial pelo fato de não se tratar de uma versão feita diretamente do idioma do autor, mas a partir do francês. Outrossim, visamos apresentar, como contraponto, uma tradução direta que abrange o trecho inicial do livro e, no tempo da narrativa, corresponde ao primeiro dia vivido pelo protagonista em suas andanças por Cristiânia, a atual Oslo.

Crossing the Borders of the Literary Markets

Det er en uomtvistelig kendsgerning, at Knut Hamsun har opnået status som en af de mest fremtrædende norske repræsentanter for verdenslitteraturen. Hans værker er blevet oversat og distribueret internationalt og pådrager sig stadig verdensomspændende opmærksomhed. Et centralt aspekt af hans internationale anerkendelse er hans egen overskridelse af grænser, dvs. hans rejser og ophold udenfor Norge, ikke mindst i et af samtidens litterære centre, Paris. Her opholdt Hamsun sig to gange mellem april 1893 og juni 1895. Det var også her, han lærte sin fremtidige tyske forlægger, Albert Langen, at kende. Langens forlag blev efter sigende oven i købet grundlagt pga. Hamsun. Ikke desto mindre udkom Hamsuns første bog i tysk oversættelse hos S. Fischer Verlag. Begge forlag var kendt for deres indsats for udbredelsen af især skandinavisk litteratur i tysk oversættelse. Denne artikel fokuserer på de afgørende betingelser for den tidlige transmission, formidling og cirkulation af Hamsuns værker i Tyskland samt den afgørende rolle, som nøglefigurer som formidlere og oversættere spillede i denne sammenhæng.

Norwegian emigration and the emergence of modernity in Norway: America letters and the cases of Knut Hamsun and Sigbjørn Obstfelder

Norway was going through important changes in the 19th century. It was a time of disruption, when the old rural society was transformed by the growing industrialisation, by the development of transportation and the expansion of free trade, when internal migration reached its peak as farmers struggled to survive using the old ways of living that had been passed on from generations and that no longer seemed to work in the modernized world. This paper argues that, although the need for change of the old habits was at the basis of the mass exodus to the New World, migration facilitated the emergence of modernity in Norway. America letters played an important role, as they both convinced the families and friends of the emigrants to embark for America, but they also helped increase the literacy rate in the homeland. Further on, the discussion will focus on the American experience of Knut Hamsun and Sigbjørn Obstfelder, which helped them gain recognition as forerunners of modernism in Norway