The Voice of the Blood: Vitalism and the Acoustic in Knut Hamsun's Pan (1894)

Embodied Vitalism

In his well-known essay, "Fra det ubevidste Sjæleliv" (1890; From the Unconscious Life of the Soul), Knut Hamsun describes the perplexing experience he had on a recent morning of waking up to find that he had written two short sketches about hunting in his sleep the previous night. Hamsun's confusion arises not so much from the legibility of the texts themselves, which he judges were "skrevne med en svær Fart" (Hamsun 1939, 48) [written in great haste],¹ although remarkably using "den samme Ortografi, som jeg vilde brugt i fuldt vaagen Tilstand" (Hamsun 1939, 48) [the same orthography I would have used in a completely conscious state]; rather, the mysterious texts have interest for Hamsun because of the questions they pose about the unconscious functioning of the human mind. He wonders quite simply: "Hvorledes skulde jeg forklare mig alt dette?" (Hamsun 1939, 52) [How was I to explain all of this?]. The anecdote points to a central mystery that Hamsun explores in the essay, namely, the nature of the unconscious mind and to what degree it exerts control over the creative and intellectual life of the modern individual. The sudden appearance of two relatively coherent and legible sketches on Hamsun's desk one morning is unsettling precisely because he has no conscious recollection of having produced the texts.

What makes the anecdote relevant to this article, however, is not the mystery of this unconscious literary composition that so fascinates Hamsun, but rather the terms Hamsun uses to describe his vague recollection of the previous night. Although his conscious mind retains no trace of the nocturnal writing, Hamsun notes in passing that he feels "en Anelse i mit Blod om, at jeg om Natten, mens det endnu var mørkt, havde grebet Blyanten og Papirerne paa Bordet foran mig og skrevet ned disse to Smaastubber" (Hamsun 1939, 49) [a feeling in my blood that I had grabbed a pencil and the papers on the table in front of me while it was still dark and had written down these two sketches]. By using this unusual image of experiencing an "anelse" [a feeling or notion] in his blood, Hamsun both de-intellectualizes and corporealizes individual subjectivity. The dualism of mind/body is done away with in this model of fluid, corporeal perception, and memory and agency are even severed from the functioning of the brain, instead being dispersed by a constantly moving stream of vital fluid circulating through the body.

This tendency of Hamsun to understand perception, memory, and subjectivity as fundamentally embodied adds nuance to the literary-historical characterization of early Hamsun as a prototypical neo-Romantic of the 1890s whose career was founded on a wholesale repudiation of naturalism. Hamsun's 1890 essay does indeed draw a sharp, rather schematic distinction between what he describes as the prosaic, moralizing realism of the Modern Breakthrough on the one hand, and literature that goes beneath the surface to depict what he called the modern "life of the soul" on the other (1939). Scholarly references to Hamsun's essay almost invariably quote a passage from the end of the piece that contains Hamsun's most explicit call for a literary changing-of-the-guard:

Hvad om nu Literaturen i det hele taget begyndte at beskæftige sig lidt mere med sjælelige Tilstande, end med Forlovelser og Baller og Landture og Ulykkeshændelser som saadane? . . . Vi fik erfare lidt om de hemmelige Bevægelser, som bedrives upaaagtet paa de afsides Steder i Sjælen . . . sælsomme Nervevirksomheder, Blodets Hvisken, Benpibernes Bøn, hele det ubevidste Sjæleliv.

(Hamsun 1939, 61)

(What if literature now began to concern itself a bit more with mental states, rather than with engagements and balls and trips in the country and accidents and such? . . . We would get to experience a little bit of the secret movements that go on unobserved in the peripheral places in the soul . . . the strange workings of the nerves, the whisper of the blood, the prayer of the marrow, the entire unconscious life...