On the publication of Georg Brandesī Det moderne Gjennembruds Mænd (The Men of the Modern Breakthrough) in 1883, a hurt Herman Bang found that neither he nor any of his works had been mentioned. Bangīs Haabløse Slægter (Futile Kin) is one of the most accomplished naturalist novels to have been written in Danish and that this had not been acknowledged led to a sharp and controversial exchange of literary opinions between the two gentlemen. The altercation was, however, as much personal as literary, Bang having upstaged Brandes by introducing new French literature to the Danish public and by drawing attention to Zola and the significance of the īnaturalistī school.
Issues prevalent in contemporary French literature and art came to play a crucial role in Bangīs work. His journalism was devised following a French pattern and in his essays on literary theory he presented French writers to his readers. Bang was also the most skilful and thorough of Danish authors to experiment with a style which took its name from the contemporary French approach to painting: Impressionism. The impressionist form, with its attempt to represent the subjectivism of sense perception, was tried and tested in Bangīs collection of writings entitled Stille Exsistenser (Quiet Lives), which included the novel Ved Vejen (Katinka). The idea for Katinka struck Bang when, looking out through the window of his train compartment, he caught sight of a womanīs face. Observation from a distance, reality passing as images across the observerīs mindīs-eye, is typical of Bangīs narrative style.Katinka is an ill-fated love story concerning an immature and sexually inhibited young woman, Katinka Bai, and her existence in a little Danish station town where the monotony of life according to a railway timetable, coupled with provincial conformity, contrive to smother any attempt at self-expression. This theme is one of the mainstays of Bangīs writing - the tension between the oppressive social and economic power exercised by society and the concrete values of the individual, such as love. Katinka as a destiny and a type recurs in many of Bangīs stories, including Tine (Tina) and Ludvigsbakke (Ludvigīs Hill).
However, the melancholic tone of these books is abandoned in, for example, Stuk (Stucco). Stucco provides a contemporary panoramic view of the big city and the very nature of its impressionist presentation throws into relief the fragmented nature of forms of experience offered by urban life. Via an enormous gallery of characters, collective consciousness and habits are exposed; communal experience and social life are seen to be assigned a central role at the expense of the individualīs inner life. The institutional pillars of a modern society, from banks and department stores to theatres and daily newspapers, are just as important as the individuals who people them. As is often the case in Bangīs novels, instinct and guilt are the central concepts and the moulded ornamentation of buildings which was characteristic of the period - stuccowork - here symbolises the prevailing hollowness and superficiality.
His last books, Mikaël (Michael) and De uden fædreland (The Stateless) again deal with the outsider, but here the focus is on the artist. Bang received a mixed reception during his lifetime. Today he occupies an eminent position, not just because he gives a sharp and detailed account of his times, but also because he tells his stories with great psychological insight and in an exciting form. In retrospect there can be little doubt that Herman Bang features among the authors of the modern breakthrough.
(1998)
