ABSTRACT

Years before he attained international acclaim, the Icelandic author Halldór Laxness spent almost three years in the United States; however, few scholars in American studies have delved into Laxness’s pivotal experience in California or his consequential literary encounter with Upton Sinclair. Using American and Icelandic sources, this article maps Laxness’s travels through a transnational California culminating in an incident of political suppression that reveals the risks of radicalism during the 1920s. Foregrounding how Laxness confronted economic inequality and disparaged nativist patterns in American society through his book Alþýðubókin, a collection of essays published in 1929, this article also situates Laxness’s work in a broader tradition of left-wing dissent, while also revealing the influence of the muckraking style on Laxness’s politics and prose.

摘要

在获得国际赞誉之前的几年，冰岛作家哈尔多·拉克斯内斯 (Halldór Laxness) 在美国待了将近三年；然而，很少有美国研究学者深入研究拉克斯内斯在加利福尼亚的关键经历或他与厄普顿辛克莱的文学遭遇。本文使用美国和冰岛的资料，描绘了拉克斯内斯穿越跨国加利福尼亚的旅行，最终导致政治镇压事件，揭示了 1920 年代激进主义的风险。通过他的书Alþýðubókin 强调 Laxness如何面对美国社会的经济不平等和贬低本土主义模式作为 1929 年出版的散文集，这篇文章还将拉克斯内斯的作品置于更广泛的左翼异议传统中，同时也揭示了揭发黑幕的风格对拉克斯内斯的政治和散文的影响。