Cultural Studies paper by Mekis, János D.
Double Testimonies: Antifascism and Anticommunism as Modes of Historical Representation by Sándor Márai and Imre Kertész (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
Sándor Márai and Imre Kertész, both involved in communism as youngsters, were relentless opponents of Marxism-Leninism in their thirties, and they kept refusing it for decades. On the basis of personal experiences, they both adjudicated fascism and also communism substantially misleading ideologies, and maintained that these two different ideologies were very similar in their tyrannical collectivism and abusive informational methods. Márai and Kertész both composed literary works coping with depressing memories of fascist and communist political systems, and experimented with narrating strict historical facts in a literary manner. Explained in several essays and talks, Kertész regarded Márai as an ideal, believing that his predecessor’s oeuvre represents a proper ethical way of being “polgár”, bound to a partly real, partly imagined community of Bürgertum or bourgeoisie (understood in a positive sense). On the one hand, Kertész insisted that lying is a basic condition of fascist and also communist structures. On the other hand, he declared that independent literature has the ability to tell the truth via fiction. In my paper, I aim to investigate antifascism and anticommunism as modes of historical representation. Targeting such important books as Memoir of Hungary by Sándor Márai, as well as The Union Jack by Imre Kertész, I conduct an inquiry into the cultural, ethical and aesthetical problems of their autobiographical and biofictional works.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
János D. Mekis, PhD is an associate professor at the Department of Literary Theory and Modern Literatures, University of Pécs, Hungary. Former Head of Department, core member of the Literary Doctoral School. His research area is Hungarian Modernism, theories of narrative, and literary autobiography. Author of 100+ academic publications, including three scholarly monographs. Visiting professor at universities in Groningen, Jyväskylä, Brno and Paris. He is a member of the following organizations: Executive Committe of the International Association for Hungarian Studies; International Comparative Literature Association; National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary; Doctoral Committee of the Hungarian Accreditation Committee.