Hamsun’s Merker

Abstract

This article examines Knut Hamsun’s reactions to the new uses of proper names at the end of the nineteenth century, including the commercial use of celebrity names and trademarks. The topic is studied on three interrelated levels: Hamsun’s hostile reaction to the modern advertising industry; his attempts to create a famous name for himself; and finally, his literary representation of these themes in his early work. The advertised name points to a threatening distance between private individual and public persona that raises questions about the possibility to express or communicate authentic identity. This tension is studied in “På turné,” which revolves around the launching of the author’s name “Hamsun,” and in Mysterier, where the meaning of names as well as the novel’s modernist narrative form are intimately linked to Hamsun’s experiences of the emerging practices of advertising and branding.