Table of Contents

1. Discourses of Race and Primitivism in Scandinavia

2. Hamsun's Women as Scapegoats for Modernity's Sins

3. Imagining the Indians

4. Imagining Black and White

5. A Taste of the Orient

6. Imagining the Sly Magic "Lapps"

7. Imagining Degeneration and Revolution: The Interwar Period and Occupation

8. The Rhetoric of Defense in Hamsun's Paa gjengrodde stier

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Promotional Information

Discusses Hamsun's political and cultural ideas together with an analysis of his highly regarded writing

About the Author

Monika Zagar is associate professor of Scandinavian studies at the University of Minnesota.

Reviews

"Knut Hamsun is a very important contribution not only to the study of Knut Hamsun's oeuvre, but also to the general study of literature. By asking the question of how Hamsun's works have been affected by his political and social attitudes, eagar offers an instructive example of how crucial it is not to separate literary works from the context that enabled them." Jan Sjavik, professor of Scandinavian studies, University of Washington "eagar makes a strong case for the importance of discussing Hamsun's views on modernity, race, genetics, eugenics, and gender to understand his 'repugnant politics.'" Anne Sabo, associate professor of Norwegian, St. Olaf College "What if instead of attempting to separate Hamsun's politics and his art, ... eagar seem(s) to be hinting ... in her superb new academic study, ... we took it for granted that the two were inextricably intertwined -- that one would never have been possible without the other? Where would we be then?"Matthew Shaer, Los Angeles Times