Literarischer Antisemitismus bei Knut Hamsun und Henrik Pontoppidan: zwei Varianten mit unterschiedlicher Tendenz

Up until now, Scandinavianist criticism has barely touched the question of a specific literary function of anti-Semitic stereotypes. This paper starts with a discussion of an older but persistent critical controversy about anti-Semitic tendencies in Knut Hamsun’s work. It then focuses on two novels, Siste kapitel (1923) by Knut Hamsun and Lykke Per (1898–1904) by Henrik Pontoppidan. Both depict “the Jew” as the incarnation of capitalist modernity, however arrive at quite different conclusions. This article defends the thesis that Siste kapitel uses a well calculated play by constructing the character Fru Ruben as possibly but indeterminably Jewish. It thus has the potential to activate anti-Semitic pre-dispositions in the reader. Lykke Per on the other hand, depicts stereotypical Jews in a clearly anti-Semitic manner. However, it can be shown that these depictions are used to unveil both the narrator’s, his contemporary society’s and thus potentially also the reader’s own prejudice.