The Nobel Prize for Literature was announced this week, recognising Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai. The novelist is best known for writing postmodern dystopian themes. His writing style often features long, run-on, stream of consciousness sentences.
Born in Gyula, Hungary, Krasznahorkai studied law in Budapest and then studied Hungarian language and literature art Eötvös Loránd University. During his studies he worked at a publishing house and after graduation he was a freelance writer.
At age 31, his first novel,
Satantango (1985) was published, catapulting him to fame in his homeland. In 1987 he left Communist Hungary and traveled to Mongolia, China, Japan, living reclusively abroad. These travels influenced his work. Some of his novels have been adapted into films. In 2015 he won the Man Booker International Prize. In addition to novels he is also known for his short stories, essays, and screenplays.
I am not familiar with his work so let's take a quick look at some of his best known novels.
Satantango (1985) - This postmodernist tale is narrated from multiple perspectives. The structure of the book is designed to resemble a tango - six steps forward and one then back. Each chapter is a long paragraph without line breaks (which would drive me crazy!). Set in an isolated run-down Hungarian village, a con man arrives posing as a saviour. The inhabitants are tricked into giving him all their money. It is an allegory for the decline of communism and the onset of capitalism.
The Melancholy of Resistance (1989) - Set in a small, restless town, a mysterious circus arrives promising to display the taxidermied body of the largest whale in the world. The town's inhabitants are fearful of the circus folk and cling to order. Mrs Eszter plots to takeover the town. The pure, noble Valuska, a young idealist escapes to cosmology. Kraznahorkai adapted this dark, allegorical novel into a screenplay for the film
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000).
War and War (1999) - This novel is about a Hungarian man, Korim, who travels to New York to transcribe a mysterious manuscript and publish it on the intranet before he kills himself. The manuscript tells of brothers-in-arms returning home after war. Korin has lost his faith in the world and wants to die.
Seiobo There Below (2008) - The goddess Seiobo returns to mortal realms in search of perfection. In a linked series of tales, we see the restoration of an ancient Buddha, an Italian renaissance painter, a baroque music fan, tourists visiting a Japanese shrine. Krasznahorkai uses these moments of beauty to ask what is sacred and how does great art endure?
Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming (2016) - Krasznahorkai again plays with structure, using unbroken paragraphs and sentences that run over many pages. Baron Wenchheim is an eccentric aristocrat who returns home after living in exile in Argentina. He hopes to be reunited with Marika, his childhood sweetheart. The townsfolk believe he is wealthy and will bring prosperity to the town.
- Orphan Florian Herscht is adopted by a neo-Nazi who mentors him as he learns to be a graffiti cleaner. His Boss is obsessed with Bach and is determined to find out who is defacing statues of the composer. Florian is forced to join his Boss' gang and assist in the capture. This satire about neo-Nazis and rising fascism is written in one sentence which begins 'hope is a mistake'.
Krasznahorkai sounds like an interesting writer who continually challenges the form and structure of the novel through his original style. The Nobel Academy praised him for "his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art." While I have no doubt he is a gifted writer, I fear the depressing subject matter and lack of punctuation would make my head explode!
In recent years, the Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to:
- South Korean author Han Kang (2024)
- Norwegian author Jon Fosse (2023)
- French writer Annie Ernaux (2022)
- East African/British author Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021)
- American poet and essayist Louise Gluck (2000)
I would love to have Margaret Atwood, Gerald Murnane or Alexis Wright recognised with the Noble one day. Will have to see what happens next year.
