Hunger encompasses two of Hamsun's literary and ideological leitmotifs: The influence of naturalist authors such as Émile Zola is apparent in the novel, as is his rejection of the realist tradition.
In many ways, the protagonist of the novel displays traits reminiscent of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment the author, Fyodor Dostoevsky, being one of Hamsun's main influences. His ordeal, enhanced by his inability or unwillingness to pursue a professional career, which he deems unfit for someone of his abilities, is pictured in a series of encounters which Hamsun himself described as "a series of analyses".
While he vainly tries to maintain an outer shell of respectability, his mental and physical decay are recounted in detail. Set in late 19th-century Kristiania (now Oslo), the novel recounts the adventures of a starving young man whose sense of reality is giving way to a delusionary existence on the darker side of a modern metropolis. Written after Hamsun's return from an ill-fated tour of America, Hunger is loosely based on the author's own impoverished life before his breakthrough in 1890.
Hunger portrays the irrationality of the human mind in an intriguing and sometimes humorous manner. The novel has been hailed as the literary opening of the 20th century and an outstanding example of modern, psychology-driven literature. Hunger ( Norwegian: Sult) is a novel by the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun published in 1890 by P.G.
0 kommentar(er)
