Knut Hamsun in Italy in the Twenties

by Sara Culeddu

This article tells the story of three translators who translated Knut Hamsun in the Twenties, when the Norwegian author was almost unknown in Italy. Between 1919 and 1921 Federigo Verdinois made a relay translation of Hunger and Pan from Russian; in 1925 Giacomo Prampolini translated Victoria and was the first to translate the author directly from Norwegian; in the same years, Alberto Spaini translated the play Livet ivold (In the Grip of Life), which remained unpublished, from German. Three stories bringing to life three different Italian versions of Hamsun.