This article intends to confront the literary and stage functioning of Lui, the protagonist of the Knut Hamsun’s novel Hunger (1890) and of the play of the same name created by Téo Spychalski within the theatre company, Groupe de la Veillée, in Montreal, in 1996. Using the terminological concepts developed by David Le Breton, professor of sociology at the University of Strasbourg, I explore various aspects of the notion of pain present in the novel and its stage adaptation. What is particularly interesting for me in both texts is the influence of pain on the existence of a human being, on the life of an individual.

This article intends to confront the literary and stage functioning of Lui, the protagonist of the Knut Hamsun’s novel Hunger (1890) and of the play of the same name created by Téo Spychalski within the theatre company, Groupe de la Veillée, in Montreal, in 1996. Using the terminological concepts developed by David Le Breton, professor of sociology at the University of Strasbourg, I explore various aspects of the notion of pain present in the novel and its stage adaptation. What is particularly interesting for me in both texts is the influence of pain on the existence of a human being, on the life of an individual.