Markens Grøde (1917) i et bokhistorisk perspektiv

Abstract

Growth of the Soil (1917) is usually associated with Hamsun’s period as a farmer on Hamarøy and is closely connected to the nature of Nordland. That is not completely wrong, but far from the truth, as Hamsun moved south when he grew tired of the farming life up North. And it was to the city of Larvik in Vestfold he traveled and settled down with his family to complete the novel.

The article attempts to shed light over some of the preconditions for the completion of the novel. These are conditions linked to time, place and people in the local environment through spring, summer and autumn 1917. The borderland where Hamsun rented a shed in order to work on his novel, is called Nanset, and is located between the urban municipality Larvik and the rural municipality Hedrum. Furthermore, the article addresses the distribution and reception of the novel, as well as some of the consequences that followed the Nobel prize in literature in 1920, which was bestowed upon the novel.

It is of particular interest to investigate the impact the novel had through the interwar period with respect to the racism and antisemitism that is expressed in the novel. While most reviewers agree upon Hamsun’s viewpoints, Carl Joachim Hambro, as the only reviewer, warned against his way of thinking. It is therefore further illuminated through the meeting with the merchant Aron in the novel, as well as Hamsun’s neighbor at Nanset, Israel Leib Sachnowitz.