Crossing the Borders of the Literary Markets

Without any doubt, Knut Hamsun has earned the status as one of the most prominent Norwegian representatives of world literature as his works were and still are widely translated and distributed internationally. Crucial to the author’s international recognition was his own border-crossing away from Norway, not least to one of the literary centres of the time, Paris, where Hamsun stayed two times between April 1893 and June 1895. Here, he got acquainted with his future German publisher, Albert Langen. Allegedly, Albert Langen Verlag was even founded because of Hamsun. Nevertheless, Hamsun’s first book publication in German translation appeared at S. Fischer Verlag. Both publishing houses were explicitly renowned for their dissemination of Scandinavian literature in translation. This article focuses on the main implications of the early transmission, dissemination and circulation of Hamsun’s works in Germany and the key figures involved in it.Det er en uomtvistelig kendsgerning, at Knut Hamsun har opnået status som en af de mest fremtrædende norske repræsentanter for verdenslitteraturen. Hans værker er blevet oversat og distribueret internationalt og pådrager sig stadig verdensomspændende opmærksomhed. Et centralt aspekt af hans internationale anerkendelse er hans egen overskridelse af grænser, dvs. hans rejser og ophold udenfor Norge, ikke mindst i et af samtidens litterære centre, Paris. Her opholdt Hamsun sig to gange mellem april 1893 og juni 1895. Det var også her, han lærte sin fremtidige tyske forlægger, Albert Langen, at kende. Langens forlag blev efter sigende oven i købet grundlagt pga. Hamsun. Ikke desto mindre udkom Hamsuns første bog i tysk oversættelse hos S. Fischer Verlag. Begge forlag var kendt for deres indsats for udbredelsen af især skandinavisk litteratur i tysk oversættelse. Denne artikel fokuserer på de afgørende betingelser for den tidlige transmission, formidling og cirkulation af Hamsuns værker i Tyskland samt den afgørende rolle, som nøglefigurer som formidlere og oversættere spillede i denne sammenhæng

Kongens Falds positionering på tværs af markeder: Den danske og den tysksprogede modtagelse i boghistorisk lys

In my article I examine the diverging and manifold images of the novel Kongens Fald as depicted in resp. the Danish and German-speaking contemporary reception, due to the different conditions and contextualizations in the resp. book markets. Theoretically my analysis is mainly based on D.F. McKenzie’s thoughts outlined in “The Book as an Expressive Form” (1985)