INTERLITT ERA RIA 2013, 18/2: 382–396 Knut Hamsun as a Literary and Film Character1 KATRIN KANGUR Abstract. This article uses as a case study the historical-biographical drama film Hamsun (1996) in order to discuss the complications that arise when considering biographical films as adaptations of biographical and/or autobiographical works of literature. Hamsun by the Swedish director Jan Troell is an adaptation of the Danish author Thorkild Hansen’s documentary novel Processen mod Hamsun (The Trial of Hamsun, 1978), which in turn draws most extensively on the Nor- wegian novelist Knut Hamsun’s own writings, primarily his autobiographical novel Paa gjengrodde Stier (On Overgrown Paths, 1949). Hansen, in telling the story of Hamsun’s life, concentrates on the events surrounding the Second World War and its aftermath in Norway. The focus is set on the court trial of 1945–1948 when Hamsun was accused of being a quisling and his mental state was seriously questioned not only by the court, but also the general public. Hansen in his novel interprets his extensive source material with a very clear intention of rehabilitating Hamsun as a great writer with a brilliant mind instead of considering him a traitor. It is Hamsun’s own perspective in Paa gjengrodde Stier that clearly lays the groundwork for Hansen’s portrait of the writer. However, Hamsun’s account of events is most selective: his often sharp and ironic descriptions of the present are combined with lyrical and philosophical reminiscences of the past, hardly providing the reader with any answers or explanations. The character Hamsun in Paa gjengrodde Stier seems to be a rather carefully constructed figure whose primary intent is to evoke the reader’s sympathy and to remind us of his status as a writer, an artist. The director Troell has said in several interviews that it was very important for him to use Hansen’s book as source material, but that he and his screenwriter Per Olov Enquist have included many other sources, among them Hamsun’s own Paa gjengrodde Stier. Viewing the film as an adaptation of Hansen’s book, one easily recognizes the connections to Hamsun’s own writings. An interesting question is whether or how the main character differs in each above-mentioned text. Naturally, the longer the period of time that separates the source material from the film adaptation, the more significant a role the changes that have occurred over time in social, political and ethical values play in our interpretation of depicted events. Hansen’s portrayal of Hamsun was very original and controversial in its time. However, the release of the film Hamsun to an international audience in 1996 reopened the debate 1 The research has been supported by the Estonian Science Foundation (grant No 8874). 383 Knut Hamsun as a Literary and Film Character of “Hamsun’s guilt”. Troell chose to focus on the drama of Hamsun’s personal life through the war and its after-effects. The image of an artist instead of a collaborator – similar to what Hamsun created of himself on the pages of Paa gjengrodde Stier – prevails in both the novel and its film adaptation. Keywords: biographical film, documentary novel, autobiographical novel, adaptation studies, Knut Hamsun, biography DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/IL.2013.18.2.08 This article discusses the complications that arise when considering biographi- cal films that are based on biographical or autobiographical works of literature using as a case study the Swedish director Jan Troell’s historical-biographical drama Hamsun. The film is an adaptation of the Danish author Thorkild Hans- en’s documentary novel Processen mod Hamsun (The Trial of Hamsun), which in turn draws extensively on the Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun’s own writ- ings, primarily his autobiographical novel Paa gjengrodde Stier (On Overgrown Paths). The audience generally seeks out two basic “truths” when discussing bio- graphical film: the commonly known historical and/or biographical facts and the film’s correlation to these and the “credibility” of the portrayal of the main character.2 However, seeing popular historical or public figures from a new and unorthodox perspective can bring them and thus also the past into a differ- ent light. (This is also the case with Troell’s Hamsun.) Information on both the DVD-cover and in the title sequence of Troell’s film Hamsun explains that it is “based on” (made after) Hansen’s documentary novel Processen mod Hamsun. Troell has said in several interviews that with this film it was very important for him to use Hansen’s book as source material, but that he and his screenwriter Per Olov Enquist “have included many other sources”, among them Hamsun’s own On Overgrown Paths.3 An interesting question is whether or how the main character differs in each above-mentioned text. 2 Giselle Bastin explains our expectations concerning biographical stories on screen as follows: “When people’s lives are adapted to the screen, they are subject to the same appraisals and complaints that beset any form of film adaptation in the sense that the viewer can feel let down and betrayed by the film’s lack of similarity to its source “text”.” (Bastin 2009: 35) 3 Here I am referring to two interviews with Jan Troell by Estonian media, respectivly in 1997 and 1999, first with Tiit Merisalu (Merisalu 1997) and with Ülev Aaloe (Aaloe 1999) as well as to Ülev Aaloe’s afterword to P. O. Enquist’s Hamsun. En filmberättelse in Estonian translation (Aaloe 1998). 384 KA NGUR Similarly to the genre of literary biography, biographical dramas or “biopics” are situated in the gray area between fiction and non-fiction. The term “biopic” seems to imply a variety of genres, ranging from serious documentaries to melodrama, action film or comedy. Various branches of cultural studies have only recently come to appreciate biographical film as a genre. George F. Custen’s Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History published in 1992 was one of the first comprehensive histories of the genre.4 While discussing Hollywood “studio” biopic’s effects on a wider audience’s understanding of historical events, Custen points out the power of cinema’s influence on the public’s perception of “truth”: “While most biopics do not claim to be the definitive history of an indi- vidual or era, they are often the only source of information many people will ever have on a given historical subject.” (Custen 1992: 7) Biographical films in general tend to follow two different patterns: those that claim documentary value and others that aim to reach more artistic goals. The latter take more than occasionally liberties with the biographical/histori- cal facts for the sake of presenting a gripping story. 5 Dennis Bingham’s book Whose Lives Are They Anyway?:... published in 2010 demonstrates that expecta- tions for biographical film no longer include historical-biographical accuracy – the “biopic”, according to Bingham, is a genre that first and foremost gives the public the opportunity to actually experience a different life than their own. Troell’s film tells the story of the last 17 years of Hamsun’s life. The film is set around the time of World War Two, including the years preceding the war and its aftermath, because of how these events affected the Hamsuns – both Knut and Marie and their four adult children. As such, the film can be viewed not only as the story of Hamsun’s later years, but as the story of the whole fam- ily’s fall from the highest status of social respect to the moral and legal condem- nation after the war. As Hamsun presents itself as an adaptation of Hansen’s documentary nov- el, the question arises as to its “faithfulness” to the source material. Marianne Stecher-Hansen’s article “Whose Hamsun?...” from 1999 analyzes the two 4 The biopic as a genre is defined by Custen as encompassing films in which “the characters’ real names are used” (Custen 1992: 8). “The fact that real names are used in biographical films suggests an openness to historical scrutiny and an attempt to present the film as the official story of a life.” (Custen 1992: 8) 5 Bingham summarizes this by saying that: “At the heart of the biopic is the urge to dramatize actuality and find in it the filmmaker’s own version of truth. The function of the biopic subject is to live the spectator a story. The genre’s charge, which dates back to its salad days in the Hollywood studio era, is to enter the biographical subject into the pantheon of cultural mythology, one way or another, and to show why he or she belongs there.” (Bingham 2010: 10) 385 Knut Hamsun as a Literary and Film Character texts behind the film, focusing on the ideological relationship between Han- sen’s Processen mod Hamsun and Enquist’s film script published in the novel form (Hamsun. En filmberättelse.6) To give a short summary for comparison: Stecher-Hansen points out two major differences between Hansen’s and En- quist’s portrayal of Hamsun. She suggests that Hansen concentrates on find- ing an explanation for Hamsun’s “guilt”; Enquist clearly tries to distance his book from that question by concentrating on the personal family tragedy of the Hamsuns. Regarding the question of whether it is possible to approach the last decade of Hamsun’s life with any ideological neutrality, the article concludes that because Enquist accepts “Hamsun’s Nazism as a foregone conclusion”, it is doubtful that he has succeeded “in erasing the old notion of authorial genius, or whether Hamsun simply clouds the political implications of Knut Hamsun’s tragedy” (Stecher-Hansen 1999: 251).