Imre Kertész
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Imre Kertész | |
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Imre Kertész in Szeged (2007)
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Born | Budapest, Hungary |
9 November 1929
Occupation | Novelist |
Ethnicity | Hungarian Jewish |
Notable works | Fatelessness Kaddish for an Unborn Child Liquidation |
Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Literature 2002 |
Imre Kertész (Hungarian: [ˈimrɛ ˈkɛrteːs]; born 9 November 1929) is a Hungarian author, Holocaust concentration camp survivor, 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".[1]
Contents
Background
During World War II, Kertész was deported at the age of 14 with other Hungarian Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and was later sent to Buchenwald.[2] His best-known work, Fatelessness (Sorstalanság), describes the experience of 15-year-old György (George) Köves in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Zeitz. Some have interpreted the book as quasi-autobiographical, but the author disavows a strong biographical connection. In 2005, a film based on the novel, for which he wrote the script, was made in Hungary.[3] Although sharing the same title, the film is more autobiographical than the book: it was released internationally at various dates in 2005 and 2006.
Kertész's writings translated into English include Kaddish for a Child Not Born (Kaddis a meg nem született gyermekért) and Liquidation (Felszámolás). Kertész initially found little appreciation for his writing in Hungary[2] and moved to Germany. Kertész started translating German works into Hungarian[2] — such as The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche, the plays of Dürrenmatt, Schnitzler and Tankred Dorst, the thoughts of Wittgenstein — and he did not publish another novel until the late 1980s.[3] He continues to write in Hungarian and submits his works to publishers in Hungary.
He criticized Steven Spielberg's depiction of the Holocaust in the 1993 film Schindler's List as kitsch, saying: "I regard as kitsch any representation of the Holocaust that is incapable of understanding or unwilling to understand the organic connection between our own deformed mode of life and the very possibility of the Holocaust."[4]
Controversy
Kertész is a controversial figure within Hungary, especially because even though he is Hungary's first and only Nobel Laureate in Literature, he lives in Germany. This tension was exacerbated by a 2009 interview with Die Welt, in which Kertész vowed himself a "Berliner" and called Budapest "completely balkanized."[5] Many Hungarian newspapers reacted negatively to this statement, claiming it to be hypocritical. Other critics viewed the Budapest comment ironically, saying it represented "a grudge policy that is painfully and unmistakably, characteristically Hungarian."[6]
Kertész later clarified in a Duna TV interview that he had intended his comment to be "constructive" and called Hungary "his homeland."[6]
In November 2014 Kertész gave an interview for The New York Times. Kertész claimed the reporter was expecting him to question Hungary's democratic values and was shocked to hear Kertész say that "the situation in Hungary is nice, I'm having a great time". According to Kertész, "he didn't like my answer. His purpose must have been to make me call Hungary a dictatorship which it isn't. In the end the interview was never published".[6]
List of works
Hungarian works
- Fateless (Sorstalanság) (1975). English Translations:
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- Fateless, 1992 (ISBN 0-8101-1049-0 and ISBN 0-8101-1024-5),
- Fatelessness, 2004 (ISBN 1-4000-7863-6)
- A nyomkereső (The Pathseeker) (1977)
- Detektívtörténet (A Detective Story) (1977)
- A kudarc (The Failure) (1988)
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- Fiasco, 2011 (ISBN 1-9355-5429-8)
- Kaddis a meg nem született gyermekért (1990). English Translations:
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- Kaddish for an Unborn Child (translated by Tim Wilkinson), 2004, ISBN 1-4000-7862-8
- Kaddish for a Child Not Born (translated by Christopher C. Wilson and Katharina M. Wilson), 1999, ISBN 0-8101-1161-6
- Az angol lobogó (The Union Jack) (1991)
- Gályanapló (Galley Boat-Log) (1992)
- A holocaust mint kultúra: három előadás (The Holocaust as Culture: Three Lectures) (1993)
- Jegyzőkönyv (The Minutes of Meeting) (1993)
- Valaki más : a változás krónikája (Someone Other: The Cronicle of the Changing) (1997)
- A gondolatnyi csend, amíg a kivégzőosztag újratölt (A Breath-long Silence, While the Firing Squad Reloads) (1998)
- A száműzött nyelv (A Language in Exile) (2001)
- Felszámolás (Liquidation) (2003)
- K. dosszié (File "K.") (2006)
- Európa nyomasztó öröksége (Europe's Depressing Heritage) (2008)
- Mentés másként (2011)
English translations
- Fatelessness (translated by Tim Wilkinson), New York: Knopf, 2004.
- Fateless (translated by Christopher C. Wilson and Katharina M. Wilson), Northwestern University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8101-1049-0
- Kaddish for an Unborn Child (translated by Tim Wilkinson), Vintage, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-7862-8
- Kaddish for a Child Not Born (translated by Christopher C. Wilson and Katharina M. Wilson), Evanston, Illinois: Hydra Books, 1997, ISBN 0-8101-1161-6
- Liquidation (translated by Tim Wilkinson, Knopf, 2004, ISBN 1-4000-4153-8
- Detective Story (translated by Tim Wilkinson), Harvill Secker, 2008, ISBN 1-84655-183-8
- The Pathseeker (translated by Tim Wilkinson), Melville House Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-933633-53-4
- The Union Jack (translated by Tim Wilkinson), Melville House Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-933633-87-9
- Fiasco (translated by Tim Wilkinson), Melville House Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-935554-29-5
- Dossier K (translated by Tim Wilkinson), Melville House Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-612192-02-4
Awards and honors
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International prizes
- 2011: Grande Médaille de Vermeil de la ville de Paris
- 2009: Jean Améry Prize
- 2004: Corine Prize
- 2004: Goethe Prize
- 2002: Nobel Prize in Literature[1]
- 2002: Hans Sahl Prize
- 2002: YIVO
- 2001: Pour le Mérite (Germany)
- 2000: Welt-Literaturpreis[7]
- 2000: Herder Prize
- 1995: Brandenburg Literature Prize
- 1992: Soros Prize
- 1977: Friedrich Gundolf Prize
Hungarian prizes
- 2014: Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary
- 2002: Honorary Citizen of Budapest
- 1997: Kossuth Prize
- 1989: Aszu Prize
- 1988: Artisjus Literature Prize
- 1986: Hieronymus Prize
- 1983: Füst Milán Prize
See also
References
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Further reading
- Molnár, Sára. "Nobel in Literature 2002 Imre Kertész's Aesthetics of the Holocaust," CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 5.1 (2003)[1]
- Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. "And the 2002 Nobel Prize for Literature Goes to Imre Kertész, Jew and Hungarian," CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 5.1 (2003)[2]
- Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. "Imre Kertész's Nobel Prize, Public Discourse, and the Media," CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 7.4 (2005)[3]
- Vasvári, Louise O., and Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven, eds. Imre Kertész and Holocaust Literature. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2005.[4]
- Vasvári, Louise O., and Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven, eds. Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2009.[5]
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Imre Kertész. |
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Imre Kertész |
- Article on Kertész
- The Last Word – an interview with Kertész from Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project: "Forget You Not"
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- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). Fateless at IMDb
- Imre Kertész—Nobel Lecture
- B.-ing There, a review of the novel Liquidation by Ben Ehrenreich, Village Voice, 20 December 2004
- Imre Kertész on Jewish.hu's list of famous Hungarians
- Haaretz article on Kertész
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- Pages with reference errors
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- 1929 births
- Living people
- Auschwitz concentration camp survivors
- Buchenwald concentration camp survivors
- Hungarian expatriates in Germany
- Hungarian Jews
- Hungarian Nobel laureates
- Hungarian novelists
- Jewish novelists
- Knight Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Members of the Academy of the Arts, Berlin
- Nobel laureates in Literature
- Writers from Budapest
- Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
- 20th-century Hungarian writers
- 21st-century Hungarian writers
- 20th-century novelists
- 21st-century novelists