Shallow Soil

by Knut Hamsun

Overview

According to Wikipedia: "Knut Hamsun (August 4, 1859 – February 19, 1952) was a a Norwegian author. He was praised by King Haakon VII of Norway as Norway's soul.[1] In 1920, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the epic Growth of the Soil. He insisted that the main object of modern literature should be the intricacies of the human mind, that writers should describe the "whisper of blood, and the pleading of bone marrow".[citation needed] Hamsun's literary debut, and perhaps the work for which he is most known, was the 1890 psychological novel Hunger."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412163569
Publisher:	eBooksLib
Publication date:	04/21/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	286 KB

About the Author

Knut Hamsun (August 4, 1859 - February 19, 1952) was a Norwegian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. He was praised by King Haakon VII of Norway as Norway's soul.

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, a travelogue, and some essays.

The young Hamsun objected to realism and naturalism. He argued that the main object of modern literature should 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 as Hunger (1890), Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894), and Victoria (1898). His later works-in particular his "Nordland novels"-were influenced by the Norwegian 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 of stream of consciousness and interior monologue, and influenced authors such as Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Maxim Gorky, Stefan Zweig, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, and Ernest Hemingway. Isaac Bashevis Singer called Hamsun "the father of the modern school of literature in his every aspect-his subjectiveness, his fragmentariness, his use of flashbacks, his lyricism.