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Embodied Vitalism
In his well-known essay, "Fra det ubevidste Sjæ leliv" (1890; From the Unconscious Life of the Soul), Knut Hamsun describes the perplexing experience he had on a recent morning of waking up to find that he had written two short sketches about hunting in his sleep the previous night. Hamsun's confusion arises not so much from the legibility of the texts themselves, which he judges were "skrevne med en svæ r Fart" (Hamsun 1939, 48) [written in great haste],1 although remarkably using "den samme Ortografi, som jeg vilde brugt i fuldt vaagen Tilstand" (Hamsun 1939, 48) [the same orthography I would have used in a completely conscious state]; rather, the mysterious texts have interest for Hamsun because of the questions they pose about the unconscious functioning of the human mind. He wonders quite simply: "Hvorledes skulde jeg forklare mig alt dette?" (Hamsun 1939, 52) [How was I to explain all of this?]. The anecdote points to a central mystery that Hamsun explores in the essay, namely, the nature of the unconscious mind and to what degree it exerts control over the creative and intellectual life of the modern individual. The sudden appearance of two relatively coherent and legible sketches on Hamsun's desk one morning is unsettling precisely because he has no conscious recollection of having produced the texts.
What makes the anecdote relevant to this article, however, is not the mystery of this unconscious literary composition that so fascinates Hamsun, but rather the terms Hamsun uses to describe his vague recollection of the previous night. Although his conscious mind retains no trace of the nocturnal writing, Hamsun notes in passing that he feels "en Anelse i mit Blod om, at jeg om Natten, mens det endnu var mørkt, havde grebet Blyanten og Papirerne paa Bordet foran mig og skrevet ned disse to Smaastubber" (Hamsun 1939, 49) [a feeling in my blood that I had grabbed a pencil and the papers on the table in front of me while it was still dark and had written down these two sketches]. By using this unusual image of experiencing an "anelse" [a feeling or notion] in his blood, Hamsun both de-intellectualizes and corporealizes individual subjectivity. The dualism of mind/body is done away with in this model...