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.