Knut Hamsuns Pan og Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness

Abstract

The article examines similarities between ”Glahns død. Et papir fra 1861”, i.e., the second part of Knut Hamsun’s novel Pan (1894), and Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness (1899). The comparative analysis demonstrates that the two texts have several common features both in terms of setting, thematic aspects and narrative technique. Both ”Glahns død” and Heart of Darkness take as a point of departure a riverboat journey into the jungle. Both texts thematize the differences between the European civilization and the “uncivilized” exotic world and focus on the contrasts between the civilized and the primitive life, the rational and the irrational behavior. Both stories are narrated by a male narrator personality that is strongly fascinated by another man, and in each case the text involves a partially unreliable witness type of narrator. The article describes some of these common features as modernist and confirms the position of both novels in early modernism.