The Hungarian writer of the Lost Time : memory and poetical imitation in Krúdy Gyula’s work
Abstract
Gyula Krúdy’s (1878-1933) oeuvre admittedly represents a peculiar
kind of conundrum within the confines of literary modernism in
Hungarian literature. While the most significant authors of the early
20th century drew inspiration from Western European literary forms
and preferred to distance their works from previous prose traditions,
Krúdy’s fiction remained closely linked to those narrative forms
inherent to 19th century Hungarian prose. His motive for continuing
to use these narrative forms did not stem from a blind desire to follow
tradition, but rather originated from a conscious effort to renew and
reform the heritage bequeathed upon him by past authors. Thus, the
strange dichotomy that characterizes Krúdy’s works forces readers to
raise the following question: how is it that an author whose
experiments in fiction proved far more innovative than anything else
written by his generation still not be considered a modern author—
even by the majority of his contemporaries?
In Krúdy’s fiction, imitation is the process by which the past is
evoked and narrative memory is created; his usage of imitation
therefore embraces two characteristics that most define his oeuvre. It
is for this reason that a collection of essays focusing on the correlation
between memory and imitation in works by Gyula Krúdy seems not
only appropriate, but also a meaningful way to introduce this
unique author to readers less familiar with Hungarian
literature.
Main Author
Format
Books
Book
Published
2015
Series
Subjects
ISBN
978-951-39-6267-8
Publisher
University of Jyväskylä
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-6267-8Use this for linking
ISSN
2341-8044
Language
English
Published in
Spectrum Hungarologicum