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Icelandic writer, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1955. Laxness published his first book at the age of 17. He is best-known for his fiction depicting the hardships of the working fishermen and farmers, and historical novels combining the tradition of sagas and mythology with national and social issues. Along w ith Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889-1975) and Kristman Guðmundsson (1902-1983) Laxness was among the first internationally known Icelandic authors.
"I spent my entire childhood in an environment in which the mighty of the earth had no place outside story books and dreams. Love of, and respect for, the humble routine of everyday life and its creatures was the only moral commandment which carried conviction when I was a child." (from Laxness's Nobel acceptance speech)
Halldór Kiljan Laxness was born Halldór Gudjónsson in Reykjavík. When he was three, his parents Guðjón Helgason and Sigríður Halldórsdóttir moved to Laxnes, a farm in nearby Mosfellssveit parish, where the young Halldór spent his boyhood. His pen name Laxness took from the farm. Besides taking care of the farm, his father worked as a road construction foreman. An accomplished amateur violinist, he also taught his son to play the instrument.
Before turning to writing, Laxness planned a career as musician. Barn náttúrunnar (1919), the author's first book, came out when he was 17. Laxness was educated at the Icelandic Latin School and he attended the gymnasium in Reykjavík briefly, without graduating. His family had enough money to allow him to travel freely. After World War I Laxness spent much time in Europe and the United States, where he tried to find place in Hollywood film industry.
In 1923 Laxness turned to Catholicism and got the name Kiljan after Irish St Kilian. He spent some time at Saint-Maurice de Clervaux, a monastery in Luxemburg, studied in London at a Jesuit-run school, and continued his spiritual search at Lourdes and Rome. Laxness wrote several books with Catholic themes before arriving at a state of disillusionment. His controversial first major novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (1927), was partly written under the influence of St Thomas à Kempis and the surrealist poet André Breton. Laxness also read Proust while writing the book. A number of publishers rejected the work before it appeared. Laxness's veiled autobiography broke with the epic realism traditional in Icelandic fiction. In the end of the novel, the young protagonist turns to God, but in his own life Laxness become less and less interested in metaphysical questions, and finally he abandoned the Catholic faith.
Returning to Iceland, Laxness spent several years traveling through the country. During a stay in the United States, he lectured among others about fishing at a IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) club, but was not enthusiastic by their anarchist activities and believed that they opposed as much Marx and Lenin as Rockefeller and Morgan. In San Francisco he read James Joyce's Ulysses – later he wondered why Joyce is not counted among the most important surrealist writers. German authors, such as Thomas Mann, did not inspire him – according to Laxness, Mann was too professor-like and Goethe overrated. Perhaps the most important novelist for him was Upton Sinclair, whom he considered primus inter pares and who influenced his novel Salka Valka (1931-32). Sinclair did not mention Laxness in his book of memoir, but Laxness's letters are included in My Lifetime in Letters, Upton Sinclair (1960).
In June 1929 the Los Angeles Record published news about an "Icelandic author who faces possible deportation" – immigration officers taken away Laxness's passport. After the intervention of Sinclair and Helen Crane, the niece of Stephen Crane, it was given back. In 1930 Laxness married Ingibjørg Einarsdóttir and settled in Reykjavík. His financial situation became stable when he started to receive the state writer's grant. Permanent residence Laxness found from the parish of his youth.
Salka Valka was Laxness's breakthrough novel and reflected his Socialistic views which marked his novels in the 1930s and 1940s. The story depicted a young woman, Salka, and a small fishing community. Evil enters into the community in the form of merchants and fishing entrepreneurs and is pitted against labor movement. The book gained a huge success in England. The Evening Standard wrote that Greta Garbo would be the perfect Salka in its film adaptation. Other early works include World Light (1937-40), about a sympathetic folk poet Ólafur Kárason. The book was based on the life of the minor poet Magnús Hjaltason and showed the influence of Knut Hamsun. The trilogy Iceland's Bell, published when the author was in his 40s, made him famous and a prominent spokesman for the Icelandic nation.
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Halldór Kiljan Laxness was born in 1902 in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, but spent his youth in the country. From the age of seventeen on, he travelled and lived abroad, chiefly on the European continent. He was influenced by expressionism and other modern currents in Germany and France. In the mid-twenties he was converted to Catholicism; his spiritual experiences are reflected in several books of an autobiographical nature, chiefly Undir Helgahnúk (Under the Holy Mountain), 1924. In 1927, he published his first important novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (The Great Weaver from Kashmir). Laxness's religious period did not last long; during a visit to America he became attracted to socialism. Alþydubókin (The Book of the People), 1929, is evidence of a change toward a socialist outlook. In 1930, Laxness settled in Iceland.

Laxness's main achievement consists of three novel cycles written during the thirties, dealing with the people of Iceland. Þú vínviður hreini, 1931, and Fuglinn í fjörunni, 1932, (both translated as Salka Valka), tell the story of a poor fisher girl; Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People), 1934-35, treats the fortunes of small farmers, whereas the tetralogy Ljós heimsins (The Light of the World), 1937-40, has as its hero an Icelandic folk poet. Laxness's later works are frequently historical and influenced by the saga tradition: Íslandsklukkan (The Bell of Iceland), 1943-46, Gerpla (The Happy Warriors), 1952, and Paradísarheimt (Paradise Reclaimed), 1960. Laxness is also the author of the topical and sharply polemical Atómstöðin (The Atom Station), 1948.
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

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