The Hungarian Writer of the Lost Time. Memory and Poeticalimitation in Krúdy Gyula's Work
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SPECTRUM HUNGAROLOGICUM THE HUNGARIAN WRITER OF THE LOST TIME Memory and Poetical Imitation in Gyula Krúdy’s Works Edited by Tibor Gintli JYVÄSKYLÄ 2015 THE HUNGARIAN WRITER OF THE LOST TIME Memory and Poetical Imitation in Gyula Krúdy’s Works Edited by Tibor Gintli Spectrum Hungarologicum Vol. 8 2015 SPECTRUM HUNGAROLOGICUM VOL. 8. Editors-In-Chief: Tuomo Lahdelma Beáta Thomka Editorial Board: Pál Deréky (Wien) Jolanta Jastrzębska (Groningen) Pál Pritz (Budapest) Ignác Romsics (Budapest) Tõnu Seilenthal (Tartu) György Tverdota (Budapest) © Spectrum Hungarologicum: ISSN 2341-8044 ISBN 978-951-39-6267-8 The Hungarian Writer of the Lost Time. Memory and Poetical Imitation in Krúdy Gyula’s Work / edited by Tibor Gintli Copy editing by Rainer J. Hanshe Technical editing by Krisztina Karizs Published by University of Jyväskylä, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Art and Culture Studies, Hungarian Studies Cover Photo: József Rippl-Rónay: Woman with a Birdcage taken by Tibor Mester Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery © University of Jyväskylä © Tibor Gintli and the authors CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................... 5 Preface ............................................................................................ 9 ANNA FÁBRI “Once upon a time I used to be a novel hero…” The Cult of Literature in Gyula Krúdy’s Works ....................... 11 GYÖRGY EISEMANN Imitation as Memorial Performance in the Epic Works of Gyula Krúdy ......................................................... 26 ISTVÁN DOBOS Parody and Self-Interpretation in Reading Sindbad- Texts ........................................................................................ 45 TIBOR GINTLI Anecdotism and Associative Text Editing ......................... 60 JÓZSEF KESERŰ Theatricality in Sunflower, a Novel by Gyula Krúdy ........ 73 ANDRÁS KÁNYÁDI Krúdy and Dickens: A Ghost Story .................................... 85 TIBOR GINTLI Admirers of Saint Hermandad .......................................... 101 CLARA ROYER Krúdy in the Shtetl of Móz or Stylization As a Mon- tage ........................................................................................ 115 ZOLTÁN FRÁTER Gyula Krúdy: Autumn Races .............................................. 136 KATALIN FLEISZ „Such was the Hungarian Don Quijote” Point of Views in the Novel Entitled Ál-Petőfi .......................................... 156 GYÖRGY TVERDOTA The Book of Courting. Gyula Krúdy: The Seven Owls .... 168 About the Authors ................................................................... 183 ABSTRACT Tibor Gintli ed. The Hungarian Writer of the Lost Time. Memory and Poetical Imitation in Krúdy Gyula’s Work Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2015, 187 p. Spectrum Hungarologicum ISBN 978-951-39-6267-8 ISSN 2341-8044 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. Keywords: Gyula Krúdy, literature, narrative memory, imitation, Hungarian Studies. ACKNOWLEDMENTS I would like to thank László Bárdos for his specialist advice and comments. I am also very grateful to Rainer J. Hanshe for his scrupulous copy-editing. Their contribution and attention to detail played a substantial part in bringing this book to completion. PREFACE 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? When discussing an author whose characteristic treatment of literary tradition suggests not only the past’s perpetuity, but also its reinterpretation, it hardly comes as a surprise that the narrative technique most commonly found in Krúdy’s works is that of imitation. It would be hard indeed to find another Hungarian author other than Krúdy whose works assign a comparably significant role to the imitation of genres, 9 speech and literary styles while simultaneously alluding to the works and oeuvres belonging to other writers. This intertextual referential system represents the act of recollection as much as it also relays the process by which either characters or the narrator access past memories. 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. Tibor Gintli 10 Anna Fábri “Once upon a time I used to be a novel hero…” The Cult of Literature in Gyula Krúdy’s Works “He came from a Hungary that cannot be seen any more, from a Hungary where the issue of literature was as crucial as everyday bread. Or rather literature was even more important than bread, as bread was available for everyone to the point of satiety: literature was a delicacy of the everyday, therefore it had to be consumed frequently to safeguard the harmony of one’s spirit.”1 (Gyula Krúdy: ”Bródy”) Even if the quote above was never said exactly like this, nobody is surprised by such a summarizing statement: Gyula Krúdy is the writer of profane cults. It would even sound clichéd if we refer to him as the writer of the cult of eating, the cult of love (or rather that of women), moreover as the writer of the cult of Pest at the turn of the century. 1 “Abból a Magyarországból jött, amelyet nem láthatunk többé viszont, amely Magyarországon éppen olyan létkérdés volt az irodalom ügye, mint akár a mindennapi kenyér. Azaz fontosabb volt az irodalom a kenyérnél is, mert kenyér jóllakásig jutott minden- kinek: az irodalom a hétköznapok csemegéje volt, a melyet sűrűn kellett fogyasztani, hogy az ember harmóniában maradhasson hangulataival.” Magyarország, 14. August 1924. “Once upon a time I used to be a novel hero…” Even for a shallow reader it is apparent that the profane cult in its complete extension (detailed as a lexicon item) is present in his oeuvre: the feeling of living in a personal community with an elevated idea (and the efforts towards this), its expression in solemn formalities; the manifestations of piety play a part — the varied and elevated forms of remembering, the respecting and safeguarding of “holy places”, relics, etc. Cult is the object and the environment of Krúdy’s works, as heroes and narrator do also have a personal attitude toward their figural variants. The profane cult has the possibility of duplicating the world: behind what is elevated there is always what is ordinary, vulgar. In addition, the majority of Krúdy’s heroes live with the constraint of duplicating the world and creating (or safeguarding) cult at the same time. This is a possible way for them to endure life: there are some who are paradoxically connected to life by this, and there are many for whom life is manifested in this. For example, the followers of the cult of eating surrender to the terribly tough material essence of life and concurrently triumph over it by covering or even sublimating it into rituals, symbolic actions, and legends. Similar gestures of conquering death and incorporating life prevail in the love stories, the adventures of Sindbad, Viola Nagybotos, or Kázmér Rezeda. It seems