Imre Kertesz was a Hungarian author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002. The document summarizes an interview with Kertesz where he discusses how his experiences during World War II and living under communist rule in Hungary influenced his writing. Kertesz spent over a decade writing his first novel "Fatelessness" due to the oppressive censorship of the communist regime. In his writing, Kertesz sought to portray the individual experience against the brutality of history, drawing from his own deportation to Auschwitz as a teenager. He viewed writing as a means of survival and way to examine how different people coped with radical changes brought by regimes like the Nazis and communists.
1. Imre Kertesz
(Source: Imre Kertesz, The Art of Fiction No. 220, Paris Review)
Presented by: Dammar Singh Saud
2.
3. Introduction of Imre Kertesz
Imre Kertész was a Hungarian author and recipient of the 2002 Nobel
Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the
individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". Wikipedia
Born: November 9, 1929, Budapest, Hungary
Died: March 31, 2016, Budapest, Hungary
Spouse: Magda Kertész (m. 1996–2016), Albina Vas (m. ?–1995)
Movies: Fateless
Awards: Nobel Prize in Literature, Kossuth Prize
Books
4. Central Idea of the text
This is an interview of the world famous writer
Imre Kertesz taken by the interviewer, Luisa
Zielinski, of Paris Review. It describes how he
became a great novelist and the major features of
his writing which is based on the fragile
experience of the individual against the barbaric
arbitrariness of history of Hungary.
5. Short Biography of Imre Kertesz
Noble Prize winner novelist of Hungary
Born in 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, into a Jewish family
Noble Prize in Literature in 2002
Major novels: Fatelessness (1975), Fiasco/Disaster (1988),
Kaddish for an Unborn Child (1990) and Liquidation (2003)
Memoir: Dossier K. (2006)
The Holocaust and aftermath are the central subjects of his
best novels
Holocaust represents a rapture (break) in civilization
6. Short Biography of Imre Kertesz
His novels are about the Holocaust i.e. the killing of
millions Jews and other people by the Nazis during World
War II
“Auschwitz”(an industrial town in Poland; site of Nazi
concentration camp during World War II) is everywhere by
Kertesz means the bitter experience that he had in a terrible
world by Nazi’ holocaust
His wife, Magda was an attentive hostess
Deported to Auschwitz in 1944
Died in 2016
7. Major points of the text
The environment of the room is elegant and high-ceilinged in
which Luisa Zielinski took Kertesz’s interview.
At the age of 6 or 7 without knowing why, he wished a journal as a
gift.
He chose writing by trying to write, rewrite and improve what was
written and realized to be a writer at the age of 24.
A man turns into a writer by editing his own texts.
His financial circumstances weren’t good to be a writer.
Writing is an existential dimension which can awaken and change
our life.
8. Major points of the text
It took a long time for him to learn even the basics of
writing and he spent 13 years to bring his first novel
“Fatelessness” which was written during 1960s and 1970s.
The oppressive years of communist was the main reason in
to control the writer’s freedom.
It was the totalitarian system that interested the writer most
as a subject to rise which is so difficult to convey in words.
Having to craft new language and style is the fundamental
principle of the novel.
Language, form and plot are the three important things for
writing a novel.
9. Major points of the text
In his novel “Fatelessness”, he invented a boy as a protagonist
because anyone in a dictatorship is kept in a childlike state of
ignorance and helplessness. For that reason, he not only had to
create a specific style and form, but he had to pay close attention to
temporality.
Based on the writers experience, Stalin,s regime is different from
German Nazis; though they both are about the socialism. In Stalin’s
regime, man simply had to going if he could. In contrast, the Nazi
regime was a mechanism that worked with a such brutal speed that
“going on” meant bare survival. Thus, Nazi regime was much cruel
than Stalin’s regime.
10. Major points of the text
Three phases in literary sense: the first phase is the one just before
the Holocaust, the second phase deals with the continuation of old
values and the third phase examines the loss of old values and
creation of new values/radical tradition from such immense
suffering.
Writers like Primo Levi have written Holocaust literature for media
without going to real field or ignoring to include the real events
happened. Thus, Kertesz hits the horrors of the Holocaust.
Writing is the means of survival. So, he managed to describe those
horrors in acceptable and bearable part of this radical tradition.
11. Major points of the text
The writers like Jean Amery or Tadeusz experienced various sorts
conflicts in their days because they examined the loss of the old
values and conceived their works for people who were already
familiar with history. These writers focused on the creation of new
values from such immense suffering and conflict.
Although he tried to write a play, he worked in the field of novels
because he was slave of his passion and subjects.
The purpose of literature is for people is to become educated and
entertained.
12. Major points of the text
His experience was the price he paid to enter into literature.
In the beginning, he didn't want to commit suicide, but then he didn’t
want become writer either.
He was interested in examining how different people coped with the
regime change, thus, he met many people, read their biographies, and
listened their stories.
Readers appreciation is the greatest happiness and pleasure for writers
though writing itself is a challenging job.
His diaries, reports and experiences are the sources for his novels.
His novel, “liquidation” was written on the basis of ups and downs of the
20th century history.
13. Conclusion
Writing is a means of survival and novel is the best
form to portray the reality of the society though it is
challenging and risky job to expose reality of the
society in the totalitarian period of the history which
eventually gives happiness and pleasure in retrospect.
