Knut Hamsun: The Dark Side of Literary Brilliance (New Directions in Scandinavian Studies)

5. A Taste of the Orient

136 5 A Taste of the Orient The Orientals seem to me to possess a high ethical wisdom. They possessed, from time immemorial, satisfaction with life, they smiled at the Westerners’ restless scurry and bowed their heads in contemplative tranquility, they were content with their own. —Knut Hamsun, “Festina lente” Dronning Tamara (1903), I Æventyrland (1903), and “Under halvmånen” (1905) A lt h o u g h Eu ro pe a n O r i en ta l ism co n ta i n ed a r a n g e o f va r i ed i m ag es, from those of wilderness to others of high intellectual achievement, for Hamsun the Orient meant primarily a place of contemplative tranquility uncluttered with material trifles. Many Western artists reacted to the perceived shallowness of Western materialism during the last decades of the nineteenth century by turning to Eastern philosophy, religion, and culture for redemption and consolation. They elevated the Orient to a place where authentic experience was far superior to the rational modernity of the West. Scandinavia , too, experienced this reaction, and Scandinavian writing on Oriental locations and topics flourished. Popular Orientalist texts fell into two genres: documentary and travel writing on the one hand, and fictional texts on the a ta st e o f th e o r i e n t  137 other, although the border between the two is often blurry. Of the two texts discussed in detail in this chapter, I Æventyrland (In wonderland) recounts Hamsun’s 1899 trip through Russia and into the Ottoman Empire, and thus falls into the travel category. Dronning Tamara (Queen Tamara), Hamsun’s 1903 play set in Georgia, is fictional but draws partially on Hamsun’s impressions gathered during his trip to the Orient. One of the protagonists in Dronning Tamara is the Muslim Khan of Tovin. In his description of the khan, Hamsun employs stereotypes of Oriental sensuality and fatalism that were widespread in European culture at the time. Hamsun neatly fits this Oriental sensuality into his perceived fears of changes taking place in Western culture: a deteriorating relationship between the sexes and a growing gender imbalance. The play does not explore the region’s historical tensions between Muslims and Christians except insofar as it questions if such issues might come into play should the queen have an affair with the khan. Instead, the play focuses on the Christian Queen Tamara’s marriage. The play attempts to show the impossibility of a healthy marriage between the queen and her husband, Prince Georgi. The crucial issue is the relationship between a woman and a man whose unequal power positions are quite literally reflected in their respective titles, queen and prince. Simultaneously , the play explores and recommends strategies for rectifying what in Hamsun’s eyes is a deplorable situation. The khan appears in the play as an erotic third party of sorts, whose function is to awaken the queen’s desires. Dronning Tamara, a prose play in three acts, was first performed by the Kristiania National Theater in January 1904.1 Hamsun expected it to be a success,2 but, disappointingly, the play ran for only twelve performances. Hamsun blamed the ostensibly heavy-handed production for the failure rather than his own stage settings, instructions, and designs, all of which were overblown. The stage settings consisted of stereotypical props such as Oriental carpets and exotic instruments. Women wore veils and men kaftans. The script called for massive stagings, with musicians, veiled girls, and heavily armed soldiers.3 The play was a direct result of Hamsun’s journey to the East with his first wife. After he and Bergljot Goepfert were married in 1898, they first stayed in Finland for almost a year. Their subsequent journey through Russia to the Caucasus and to the Caspian Sea ended in Constantinople. They returned to Norway via Serbia and Germany at the end of September 1899, having traveled in the Orient for approximately one month.4 Hamsun later published a travel book about the journey, the underrated I Æventyrland.5 Like many 138 a ta st e o f th e o r i e n t other Europeans of his own and earlier times, Hamsun sought to find in the Orient a fairytale paradise, and he actually imagined that he did. He writes at one point: “I have been to Petersburg and Moscow, have traveled through Russia and the...