Knut Hamsun’s “Meditations on Nansen” Revisited: The Dilemma of Modernity
Knut Hamsun’s polemic about the Norwegian Nansen cult round 1889 (on the occasion of Fridtjof Nansen’s ski crossing of Greenland), which he published in a newspaper article titled “Meditations on Nansen” (“Nansen-Betragtninger”), was mainly directed against the public enthusiasm for sportive records...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:bf761aac7d314a7499c7bd3dbd5230a1 2023-05-15T15:08:08+02:00 Knut Hamsun’s “Meditations on Nansen” Revisited: The Dilemma of Modernity Hanna Eglinger 2015-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3433 https://doaj.org/article/bf761aac7d314a7499c7bd3dbd5230a1 EN NO eng nor Septentrio Academic Publishing https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3433 https://doaj.org/toc/0809-1668 https://doaj.org/toc/1503-2086 doi:10.7557/13.3433 0809-1668 1503-2086 https://doaj.org/article/bf761aac7d314a7499c7bd3dbd5230a1 Nordlit: Tidsskrift i litteratur og kultur, Iss 35 (2015) Arctic enthusiasm Knut Hamsun Fridtjof Nansen Bruno Latour transgression modernity Norwegian literature PT8301-9155 article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3433 2022-12-31T00:01:05Z Knut Hamsun’s polemic about the Norwegian Nansen cult round 1889 (on the occasion of Fridtjof Nansen’s ski crossing of Greenland), which he published in a newspaper article titled “Meditations on Nansen” (“Nansen-Betragtninger”), was mainly directed against the public enthusiasm for sportive records as a typical modern trend, whose pointless absurdity Hamsun shows in an incisive and specifically provocative way. His critique is primarily aimed at a kind of hero worship that in his opinion is out of all proportion to the uselessness of the expedition’s results. Thus, “a daredevil, well finished adventure, a breakneck act, a sports affair, a lucky strike,” as he outlines Nansen’s venture, becomes the basis for a mass hysteria whose driving forces are invested in the signatures of modernity. The fascination of crossing the line and of extreme forms of progress in “both sports and science”, their entanglement as an example for the “proliferation of hybrids” (Latour 1993), and the contingent dimension of success stories are symptoms of modernity that Hamsun is polemically engaged with. In conclusion, I investigate to what extent Hamsun ironically refers to these symptoms in his novel Editor Lynge (Redakteur Lynge, 1893). My argument is supported by the assumption that Hamsun’s vehement denunciation of such tendencies is owed to the fact that he himself is embroiled in them. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Fridtjof Nansen Greenland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Greenland Fridtjof ENVELOPE(-56.717,-56.717,-63.567,-63.567) Nordlit 35 173 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English Norwegian |
topic |
Arctic enthusiasm Knut Hamsun Fridtjof Nansen Bruno Latour transgression modernity Norwegian literature PT8301-9155 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic enthusiasm Knut Hamsun Fridtjof Nansen Bruno Latour transgression modernity Norwegian literature PT8301-9155 Hanna Eglinger Knut Hamsun’s “Meditations on Nansen” Revisited: The Dilemma of Modernity |
topic_facet |
Arctic enthusiasm Knut Hamsun Fridtjof Nansen Bruno Latour transgression modernity Norwegian literature PT8301-9155 |
description |
Knut Hamsun’s polemic about the Norwegian Nansen cult round 1889 (on the occasion of Fridtjof Nansen’s ski crossing of Greenland), which he published in a newspaper article titled “Meditations on Nansen” (“Nansen-Betragtninger”), was mainly directed against the public enthusiasm for sportive records as a typical modern trend, whose pointless absurdity Hamsun shows in an incisive and specifically provocative way. His critique is primarily aimed at a kind of hero worship that in his opinion is out of all proportion to the uselessness of the expedition’s results. Thus, “a daredevil, well finished adventure, a breakneck act, a sports affair, a lucky strike,” as he outlines Nansen’s venture, becomes the basis for a mass hysteria whose driving forces are invested in the signatures of modernity. The fascination of crossing the line and of extreme forms of progress in “both sports and science”, their entanglement as an example for the “proliferation of hybrids” (Latour 1993), and the contingent dimension of success stories are symptoms of modernity that Hamsun is polemically engaged with. In conclusion, I investigate to what extent Hamsun ironically refers to these symptoms in his novel Editor Lynge (Redakteur Lynge, 1893). My argument is supported by the assumption that Hamsun’s vehement denunciation of such tendencies is owed to the fact that he himself is embroiled in them. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hanna Eglinger |
author_facet |
Hanna Eglinger |
author_sort |
Hanna Eglinger |
title |
Knut Hamsun’s “Meditations on Nansen” Revisited: The Dilemma of Modernity |
title_short |
Knut Hamsun’s “Meditations on Nansen” Revisited: The Dilemma of Modernity |
title_full |
Knut Hamsun’s “Meditations on Nansen” Revisited: The Dilemma of Modernity |
title_fullStr |
Knut Hamsun’s “Meditations on Nansen” Revisited: The Dilemma of Modernity |
title_full_unstemmed |
Knut Hamsun’s “Meditations on Nansen” Revisited: The Dilemma of Modernity |
title_sort |
knut hamsun’s “meditations on nansen” revisited: the dilemma of modernity |
publisher |
Septentrio Academic Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3433 https://doaj.org/article/bf761aac7d314a7499c7bd3dbd5230a1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-56.717,-56.717,-63.567,-63.567) |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland Fridtjof |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland Fridtjof |
genre |
Arctic Fridtjof Nansen Greenland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Fridtjof Nansen Greenland |
op_source |
Nordlit: Tidsskrift i litteratur og kultur, Iss 35 (2015) |
op_relation |
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/3433 https://doaj.org/toc/0809-1668 https://doaj.org/toc/1503-2086 doi:10.7557/13.3433 0809-1668 1503-2086 https://doaj.org/article/bf761aac7d314a7499c7bd3dbd5230a1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3433 |
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Nordlit |
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35 |
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173 |
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