Norwegian Literature

A

National Awakening

Norwegian writers did not fully awaken to the oral folk literature until poets Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe published a collection of Norwegian folktales, Norske folkeenventyr (1841-1844). Other collections of oral material followed. Linguist Ivar Aasen began the study of Norwegian dialects, and poet and journalist Aasmund Olafsson Vinje proved that rural speech was well suited for poetry. The glories of early Norwegian history were extolled by historian Peter Andreas Munch. Novelist Camilla Collett, on the other hand, foreshadowed literary realism in Amtmandens døttre (The Governor’s Daughters, 1854-1855). This period, known as the national awakening, lasted roughly from 1840 to 1870.

The movement was furthered by a new generation of writers, headed by the great Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen and the writer, theater director, and political leader Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Their early writings were drawn from the twin sources of the national awakening, namely the lore of the common folk and the sagas of the past. Bjørnson’s Synnøve solbakken (1857; translated into English as Sunny Hill, 1939) was an example of the former, and Ibsen’s Kongsemnerne (1864; The Pretenders, 1906) of the latter. But in contrast to the true romanticists of an earlier day, these authors did not lyricize their material; they used it as a vehicle for presenting personal experiences and current problems. In doing so they became the first modern Norwegian writers to gain attention beyond the borders of their country. Ibsen probed problems of personal and national integrity in a challenging and brilliant manner in two masterpieces of dramatic poetry, Brand (1866) and Peer Gynt (1867).

B

Norwegian Realism

In a country where society was rapidly being remade from a largely agricultural and self-contained economy to one of industrial and commercial activity, the doctrine that literature should take up social problems for debate found a ready response. With Ibsen and Bjørnson in the lead, Norwegian writers set out to remake society. Their realism was far from a photographic naturalism; it was a protest, a devastating critique of the ruling class, which was accused of corruption, intolerance, and reaction.

Ibsen made his name a household word through Europe and North America by the vigor with which he pictured women’s position in society in such plays as Pillars of Society (1877), A Doll's House (1879), and Ghosts (1881). Bjørnson, a public-spirited reformer and a writer of boundless vitality, attacked complacency and injustice in stories, novels, plays, and poems. He also raised the question of double moral standards. Yet the plight of women was not, as Ibsen repeatedly insisted, a question by itself: It was only a special case of the problem of human spiritual freedom. This was the high ideal to which these writers were devoted. In their demand for integrity and progress, the writers were closely allied with the Liberal party in Norwegian politics.

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Other outstanding representatives of Norwegian realism were Jonas Lie, a novelist whose style ultimately took an impressionistic turn, and Alexander Kielland, whose novels and short stories display debonair wit. Naturalistic pessimism characterizes the novels of Amalie Skram, and a profound concern for rural life and tradition was voiced in the novels and poems of Arne Garborg.

C

Neoromanticism

The 1890s witnessed an enthusiasm for writers and thinkers who embraced the irrational, including German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Swedish dramatist August Strindberg. In Norway writers busied themselves with the irrational forces of humankind’s inner nature; this return to romantic motifs was frequently labeled neoromanticism. The outstanding writer of the period was Knut Hamsun, an individualist of exceptional sensibility, whose solitary, capricious heroes have an affinity for nature and the irrational. Hamsun’s Sult (1890; Hunger, 1899) signaled a withdrawal in Norwegian literature from the bustle and strife of the political scene to a fin de siècle (end-of-century) weariness.

Lyric poetry came to the forefront in Norwegian literature of the 1890s, exemplified in the works of Nils Collett Vogt, Vilhelm Krag, and, especially, Sigbjørn Obstfelder. Artistic individualism and satire are predominant in the plays of Gunnar Heiberg. In short stories and novels Hans Kinck stressed the interplay of the individual, race, nature, and society. Many regional writers drew local color and dialect into the national literature.

V

The 20th Century and Beyond

The peaceful dissolution of the union of Norway with Sweden in 1905 inaugurated a period of rapid progress. Important new writers emerged, most of them following a resurgent realism marked by a concern with social problems.

A

Between the Wars

Olav Duun reached his zenith with Juvikfolke (1918-1923; The People of Juvik, 1930-1935), a series of novels of rural life. Johan Bojer wrote novels on the new industrial morality. Johan Falkberget depicted the life of copper miners and turned it into a Christian epic in Christianus Sextus (1927-1935). The most significant recognition, however, came to Sigrid Undset, whose trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter (1920-1922; trans. 1923-1927), for which she received the 1928 Nobel Prize in literature, made medieval Norway come alive through characters drawn with modern psychological insight. Among outstanding poets of the period were Herman Wildenvey, Olaf Bull, Olav Aukrust, and Olav Nygard.

The new generation of writers active between the two world wars was much affected by ideological conflicts and international tensions. The tone was set by poet Arnulf Øverland, novelist Sigurd Hoel, and dramatist Helge Krog. Hoel edited a socialist journal and introduced the works of Franz Kafka and other writers of international stature in Norwegian translation. Nordahl Grieg, a novelist, dramatist, and poet, reflected the fluctuating moods of the interwar period. He set scenes in contemporary England, Russia, Spain, and Norway in his novel Men ung må verden ennu vœre (1938; But the World Must Be Young).

The socio-psychological novel also was a staple of Norwegian literature between the wars. Peter Egge analyzed the devious ways of small town life. Nini Roll Anker documented the difficulties faced by women who wanted to work. Cora Sandel showed the drabness of suburban life, and Sigurd Christiansen delved into the mainsprings of human motivation and conscience. Danish-born Axel Sandemose wrote novels that penetrated deeply into the irrational impulses and passions of the human mind.

The German occupation of Norway, from 1940 to 1945 during World War II, left little time for literary pursuits, although both Grieg and Øverland wrote resistance poetry. Sigrid Undset spent most of the war years in the United States. Knut Hamsun was the only well-known Norwegian author to support Nazism. After the war he was tried and fined for collaboration.

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