<i>Geniets tragedie</i>: Et tsjekkisk skuespill om Hamsun

Martin Humpál

doi:10.7557/13.3763

Authors

Martin Humpál UiT The Arctic University of Norway

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/13.3763

Keywords:

Geniets tragedie (2010–)

Abstract

This article discusses the play The Old Nazi: The Tragedy of a Genius, written by the Czech journalist Martin Komárek and staged in Prague in 2010/2011. It presents both the formal and the thematic aspects of the drama and argues that this unique text deserves to be known outside of the Czech Republic. Komárek made himself familiar with various information about Hamsun’s life, but this did not curb his imagination; his play works very well as theater. The drama contains many fictitious events and dialogues, yet at the same time, it does not distort in any major way the historical image of Hamsun. The play is thus well balanced and provides a very good basis for potentially successful theater productions.

Author Biography

Martin Humpál, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Martin Humpál is Professor of Scandinavian Literature at Charles University in Prague. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He has written the books The Roots of Modernist Narrative: Knut Hamsun’s Novels Hunger, Mysteries, and Pan (Oslo: Solum Forlag, 1998) and Moderní skandinávské literatury 1870-2000 [Modern Scandinavian Literature 1870-2000, in Czech, together with H. Kadečková and V. Parente-Čapková] (Prague: Karolinum, 2006, 2nd rev. ed. 2013). Otherwise he has published articles in various journals including Edda, Norsk litterær årbok and Scandinavian Studies.