2023-10-25 – Vesterheim Bokprat: Hunger by Knut Hamsun (Online)

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Dr. Maren Johnson, Luther College's Associate Professor of Nordic Studies and Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies Director, facilitates a regular bokprat, discussing Scandinavian authors and Scandinavian life.

Hunger is Nobel Prize winner Knut Hamsun's first novel. Set in late 19th-century Kristiania (now Oslo), the novel recounts the adventures of a starving young man whose sense of reality is giving way to a delusionary existence on the darker side of a modern metropolis.

Originally published in Norway in 1890, Hunger probes the depths of consciousness. Contemptuous of novels of his time and what he saw as their stereotypical plots and empty characters, Knut Hamsun embarked on "an attempt to describe the strange, peculiar life of the mind." Like the works of Dostoyevsky, it marks a break with Western literary and humanistic traditions.

Supplies: 

 Additional Supplies:

Students will need to provide a computer, laptop, or tablet with a camera and mic as well as a fast, reliable internet connection. 

Special Instructions:  

When registering for the class, please make sure to use the mailing and email addresses you'd like the Zoom meeting invitations sent to. You will receive links to the Zoom sessions by email sometime during the week prior to the class. If this class is a gift, please sign up with the recipient's email address or be prepared to forward all communications.

Enrollment Deadline: 

October 11, 2023

Click here to learn more about instructor Dr. Maren Anderson Johnson.