Bang, Herman

From an old family, the son of a Presbyterian priest, a relative of Grundtvig , early lost his mother. Started as a journalist. In the 1880s, many lived abroad ( Berlin , Vienna , Meiningen , Prague ). He experienced the influence of naturalism , in literary and critical articles he developed the ideas of naturalists. He was friends with Ibsen . He was fond of theater, was the director of the theater in Berlin, Munich and Copenhagen .

At the request of his grandfather, Oluf Lundt Bang, from 1875 Bang began to study law and public affairs at the University of Copenhagen, intending to become a diplomat. However, in 1877 he interrupted his studies and, after numerous unsuccessful attempts as a theater actor, began working in 1878 as a journalist in the leading conservative newspaper in Copenhagen, Dagbladet. Since 1879, Bang has been a journalist in the Nationaltidende newspaper, which is aimed at businessmen and government officials. Here the writer has the opportunity to improve such a new form as feuilleton, or as he himself said to write "in a new and vague way." In the section “Vekslende Themaer”, over 4 years Bang will write over 200 Sunday feuilleton about almost everything that happens in Copenhagen in the royal family of Christian IX. Very soon, Bang became a significant writer of his time, although there are conflicting opinions about him. Bang lives the life of Dandy, not hiding his homosexual inclinations, which leads to a hostile attitude towards him and even isolation. His first novel, “Hopeless Generations,” causes a scandal and is banned because of “immorality”. The author has frequent depression, as well as epileptic seizures as a result of drug dependence. Bang dies on a train to the United States, where he arrived with a course of public lectures.

He was buried in the Western cemetery of Copenhagen .

Bang's main theme is the process of steady social decay and degeneration.

Bang's first works were written in the form of an essay; in 1880, his first novel appeared, entitled “Hopeless Generations,” which was, however, confiscated and banned for “indecency”. At the beginning of his literary career, Bang is still devoted to naturalism and is influenced by such authors as Emil Zola, Henrik Ibsen and Charles Darwin. Even Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev served as a model for Bang. In his further artistic development, Bang became the creator of Danish impressionism, and later Danish decadence. Masterfully depicts Bang not only the lives of "insignificant" people, but also lonely female images.

• Hopeless Generations / Haabløse Slægter ( 1880 , novel, was condemned as pornographic)
• Fedra / Fædra ( 1883 , novel)
• Eccentric Noveller / Excentriske Noveller ( 1885 )
• At the road / Ved Vejen ( 1886 , novel, part of the Danish cultural canon , filmed by Max von Syudov in 1988 )
• Stukko / Stuk ( 1887 , novel)
• Tine / Tine ( 1889 , novel, filmed in 1964 )
• Under the yoke / Under Aaget ( 1890 )
• Ten Years / Ti Aar ( 1891 , flashbacks)
• The Gray House / Det graa hus ( 1901 , flashbacks)
• Michael / Mikaël ( 1904 , novel, filmed by Moritz Stiller , 1916 , and Karl Theodor Dreyer , 1924 )
• Without Homeland / De uden Fædreland ( 1906 , novel)

Many of Bang's films have been made into films. Among the adaptations:

• “Love or passion”, a film by A. Uralsky in 1917 based on the remote motives of the novel “Michael” (not preserved)
• the film " Four Devils " Murnau based on a story from the collection of books. Eccentric short stories ( 1928 , film lost),
• “Katinka” by Max von Syudov ( 1988 ),
• The Michael Theodore Dreyer ,
• The Scoundrel by Alfred Hitchcock .

On the biography of the writer, a novel by Danish prose writer Dorrit Villumsen ( 1996 , translated into Swedish and Norwegian, literary prize of the Northern Council ) is built.

• Full composition of writings. T. 1-10. M., 1910-1913
• Favorites / Comp. Yu. Yakhnina . M .: Fiction, 1974

• Levinson A. Ya. Poet of hopeless generations. M., 1912
• Herman Bang / Joachim Kersten (Hrsg.). Hamburg Zürich: Arche Literatur Verlag, 2009
• Bent, Mark Iosifovich. “Individual spiritual life” in the works of Herman Bang: on the 100th anniversary of birth // News of higher education institutions: Ural region. 2012. No. 4.