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Knut Hamsun - can the writer's political views be separated from his literary work?

The winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Knut Hamsun, was born in 1859 in Norway. When he turned five, the family moved to the north of the country, and the specific landscape of that climate and the rural community left a strong impression on the young writer. Later, this will especially come to the fore in Hamsun's books, because it is the relationship between the individual, culture and nature that is the main theme of his novels. Even as a boy, he separated from his family and went to l

02.10.2024.

Hermann Hesse's search for meaning through Eastern philosophy, Jungian archetypes and Western individualism

Since he grew up in a Christian environment, they directed him to join the ministry and sent him to a seminary. Hermann didn't do very well there. Soon he began to suffer from insomnia and chronic headaches. He was taken to a pastor for treatment, but his health further deteriorated due to his unrequited love for the priest's daughter, which brought him almost to the brink of suicide. Broken, he goes to a sanatorium. Fortunately, after a few months, Hesse managed to recover and, due to his good

04.09.2024.

J. D. Salinger the aloof rebel

Although today words like "damn" or "bastard" do not sound so intriguing, in the 1950s such speech was banned in schools around the world. Moreover, teachers were losing their jobs because of putting that book on the reading list. The American writer's writing style is characterized by a peculiar use of dialogue and a focus on the inner life of the protagonist. It uses everyday language, sentences usually vary in length, and in this way it actually imitates natural speech patterns. Shorter sente

08.08.2024.

Haruki Murakami enlightenment at a baseball game

One April afternoon, while watching a baseball game at the stadium, Haruki Murakami was overcome with a strong feeling that he could write a novel. That day everything changed in his life. He went home and started writing. The Japanese writer was born in 1949 in Kyoto, during the baby boom after World War II. He probably inherited his passion for writing from his parents who were Japanese language teachers. In a 2019 article, Murakami shared a memory of his father, Chiaki. Every morning, before

09.07.2024.

Milan Kundera: "Anyone whose goal is "something more" must expect to suffer from vertigo one day."

The writer grew up surrounded by music, literature and art. His parents recognized his talents and instilled in him a love of learning. He loved to read and observe the world around him. He grew up in politically turbulent times, which significantly influenced him, so he found comfort and inspiration in the works of great writers such as Dostoyevsky, Kafka and Camus. According to some biographers, Kundera had an extremely difficult time making decisions in life, and the cause of this indecision

24.05.2024.

Franz Kafka, a genius who did not believe in his literary talent

He spent his childhood in solitude, surrounded by a nanny, a cook and a maid. He suffered from being left to himself, as well as from a lack of emotional connection with his parents who spent most of their time working in their shop. Franz's father was extremely authoritarian, and his gentle mother was not strong enough to stand up to him. Although the writer strongly identified with his mother's relatives, due to their spirituality, delicate physical structure and melancholic nature, he was not

07.05.2024.

Fyodor Mihajlovic Dostoevsky, the greatest psychologist in literature

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in 1821 in Moscow. A sensitive child from a family where his father was strict and his mother was kind, he was close to his brother Mihail and sister Varvara. In his youth, he was a sensitive and attentive child and deeply felt human suffering.

04.04.2024.

Friedrich Nietzsche - a great philosopher whose ideas were often misused

Friedrich Nietzsche, born in October 1844 in Germany, was raised in the religious spirit of a Lutheran priest. Doubted Christianity after his father's death. His extraordinary intellectual abilities led him to become a professor in Basel at the age of 24.

05.03.2024.

Agatha Christie - the best-selling author of all time

Agatha Christie, the queen of detective novels, started the action with a murder. She created unforgettable characters and plots where the culprit is often the most unexpected. The first book "The Mysterious Incident at Styles" was published in 1920, introducing Hercule Poirot.

02.02.2024.