Studia Islandica - 01.06.1970, Page 115

113
for art’s sake had no currency; their art was for life’s sake, in the service
of an ideal, and they were ruthless in their assault on every kind of in-
justice and hypocrisy in American national life.
Needless to say, Kamban became familiar with the works of these
writers and was infected by their enthusiasm and fighting spirit, which
contributed largely, if not exclusively, to the change in direction taken
by his writing after his American visit. By the time of leaving Denmark
he had probably had his fill of the neo-romanticism of Jóhann Sigurjóns-
son and was looking for a style of his own. In Denmark the products of
Icelandic writers had been received primarily as regional literature
(Heimatdichtung) and this probably had more than a little to do with
their popularity. In Danish reviews the emphasis was always on the
primitive elements in them: primitive men in the remote setting of the
saga-isle; primitive life; primitive passions against a background of
erupting volcanoes, red-hot lava and icy glaciers. All reminiscent of the
ancient sagas. But Kamban was a citizen of the world and a man of
modern times. He had no wish to tread the path to fame in the tracks of
the past, but wanted to blaze new trails; be great on his own account,
and famous without any reference to Iceland. He longed for something
new, and was therefore open to any influence that might lead his art
into more fertile regions. His next four major works, written after his
return to Denmark, are set in New York and are all social satire com-
posed in a spirit of realism. These are the plays Marmor, Vi Mordere
and Qrkenens Stjerner, and the novel Ragnar Finnsson. They are cosmo-
politan works, if one may use the term; could have any setting and are
not tied to Icelandic life like the early works Hadda Padda and Konge-
glimen. The satire is directed mainly against the penal law. Kamban
believes that punishment should be abolished, since it is inhuman and its
effects are diametrically opposed to those intended. Here he propounds a
theory that created considerable controversy in the United States while
he was there. Its chief protagonist was Thomas Mott Osborne, who wrote
two books on the subject: Within Prison Walls (1914) and Society and
Prisons (1916). For two years Osborne was governor of the notorious
Sing Sing prison, where he introduced various reforms in the spirit of
his theories, but in 1916 he was dismissed. His dismissal caused angry
debates in the press throughout the country; debates which did not
escape the notice of Kamban and doubtless awakened his interest in
crime and punishment. In this period a great admiration for Oscar Wilde
appears in Kamban; due doubtless to his awakening interest in penal re-
form. Wilde’s influence may be detected in a number of works; espe-
cially Marmor, where he provides a model for the principal character,
the idealist Robert Belford, as well as various details of the play.
8