The Transgressive Narratives of Hamsun's &lt;i&gt;In Wonderland&lt;/i&gt;

Peter Fjågesund

doi:10.7557/13.5263

Abstract

The article focuses on the transgressive quality of Hamsun’s In Wonderland, that is on the book’s variety of literary genres and narrative techniques, and on the narrator’s equally transgressive presentation of himself. To examine these qualities more specifically, the paper discusses to what extent Hamsun’s travelogue is indebted to the novel that, according to Martin Nag, was essential for Hamsun’s journey to the Caucasus, namely Mikhail Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time(1840). This will include an investigation of similarities of genre as well as similarities between Lermontov’s protagonist Pechorin and the narrator in In Wonderland, both of whom are discussed in relation to the Russian tradition of so-called “superfluous men”.

Highlights

Knut Hamsun made it clear – though typically somewhat tongue in cheek – that he did not like reading novels, and that he preferred travel writing.1 It is no wonder, that having written several novels, he wanted to try his hand on the travel genre as well
The article focuses on the transgressive quality of Hamsun’s In Wonderland, that is on the book’s variety of literary genres and narrative techniques, and on the narrator’s transgressive presentation of himself. To examine these qualities the paper discusses to what extent Hamsun’s travelogue is indebted to the novel that, according to Martin Nag, was essential for Hamsun’s journey to the Caucasus, namely Mikhail Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time (1840). This will include an investigation of similarities of genre as well as similarities between Lermontov’s protagonist Pechorin and the narrator in In Wonderland, both of whom are discussed in relation to the Russian tradition of so-called “superfluous men”
For instance, makes the useful observation that “the literary I is not necessarily equivalent to the writer Hamsun,”7 and Oxfeldt discusses Hamsun’s “traveling persona”.8. Such statements open up the whole discussion as to whether In Wonderland is to be regarded as fiction or non-fiction, and suggest the presence of a figure with a frequently tenuous connection to Knut Hamsun himself

Summary

Introduction

Knut Hamsun made it clear – though typically somewhat tongue in cheek – that he did not like reading novels, and that he preferred travel writing.1 It is no wonder, that having written several novels, he wanted to try his hand on the travel genre as well.

Results

Conclusion