Forgive me if this is an imposing question or an otherwise not infrequent one, but I wonder what the general verdict is on Knut Hamsun’s support for National Socialism, and its overall effect, if it has had any, on the culture of Norway in the present day.
I have perhaps fond memories of reading the first part of *Hunger* (in the George Egerton translation published by Dover), which occurred before I had learned anything of his Nazi sympathies or [meeting with Adolf Hitler](https://www.newsinenglish.no/2014/10/13/hamsuns-meeting-with-adolph-hitler/), or, for that matter, what I just found reproduced on Wikipedia, his (short but positive) obituary for Adolf Hitler. So when I first learned that Knut Hamsun favored the Nazi Party or that he had met Adolf Hitler, I was, in a word, shocked.
An analogous experience occurred in the case of the Victorian-era Scottish author, historian, and satirist, Thomas Carlyle, who wrote, in addition to a novel called *Sartor Resartus* (of which I had found an old hardcover copy in a thrift store in the US state of Georgia, and would spend many hours poring over), an essay entitled “On the Nigger Question” (whose contents I have yet to investigate).
Finally, another difficult case for me is that of the poet Ezra Pound, who reportedly hosted a fascist-sympathizing radio program, I think to the general dissatisfaction of his pen pal, c. the 1920’s, T. S. Eliot.
For some background, I am a college-educated, leftward-voting American, currently living in Minnesota, who supported Bernie Sanders in the 2020 US Presidential Democratic primaries, but generally shies from the mainstream political sphere. I think the US has a lot to gain from emulating Scandinavia’s progressive tax model, and I also happen to hold certain democratic values, including a generally very egalitarian outlook and the Enlightenment-era notion that democracy is the only consistent conclusion to a rigorous examination of human nature and the structure of government.
So that is where I am coming from and why it matters that I have betimes enjoyed the reading of books by seemingly dubious personages.
4 comments
Good author. Bad person with shitty political views. His status in Norwegian literature is controversial. Didn’t really write his shitty political views into his books, so people still read them.
Great author who unfortunately was a product of his time. No need to look further than France and Houellebecq, to see a current though slightly more politically diluted equivalent.
When it comes to Knut Hamsun, you have to decide if you can enjoy his work knowing he had nazi sympathies. There is no correct answer. If you can ignore his politics, enjoy his art. If you can’t, avoid his books.
As an leftward voting American, you probably have less in common with leftward voters in Norway than you think.
To give you an example, Norway have very strict immigration rules and all illegal immigrants – including families and their children – are immediately deported. With a police escort if needed. And the Labour party and the far left socialist party is fine with that.
Norway is a totally different society than the US, with different people and values. Our system would not work in the US, because our system depends on people being willing to trust government and the government and society not to be corrupt so we have a reason to trust it.
The general verdict on Hamsun is that he’s one of Norway’s greatest writers. He is still taught in school, his books are still considered canon for any educated Norwegian, and are still available in any bookstore. His nazi affiliations are of course well known and constitute a blemish on his name. Without it I think he would be considered a greater writer even than Ibsen.
This might seem weird to Americans, so I will provide some context. During the war a significant amount of Norwegians were not with the resistance. Many, especially the elites who feared the spread of communism, were in fact in open support of the nazis. If we were to shun, persecute or “cancel” all of them after the war, there wouldn’t be many of us left. My own family (business-owners, landowners and academics) had more nazi-supporters than resistance-supporters. The same could be said for most of my neighbors. Those who joined the resistance were teens rebelling against their parents.
They were sold on the pan-Germanic dream. At this point in history Norway had a closer relationship with Germany than Britain (in fact many would remember the hardship the British naval blockade caused during the napoleonic wars). The British had their empire and had little interest in any equal partnership with their Nordic neighbors, quite the contrary. Simultaneously Soviet was flexing muscles in the east. Many considered a pan-Germanic state to be the obvious way forward. People didn’t learn of the war crimes and genocides until pretty late into the war. The eugenics and anti-jewish sentiments were well known and accepted. Sadly, this was widespread across Europe at the time, regardless of ideology.
TLDR: Hamsun is like literature’s BMW/Volkswagen/Hugo Boss/Beyer chemicals etc.