Approaching and Moving Away

On Miklós Mészöly through Péter Nádas’ Memoir, Világló részletek

Abstract

In this paper I seek common ground between the memoirs of Péter Nádas, a prominent figure in contemporary Hungarian literature, and certain writings of Miklós Mészöly, an important author of twentieth-century Hungarian prose. I show that both authors disrupt the classical chronology of narrative. The temporal structure of Nádas’s memoir is determined by the attempt to identify the narrator’s first memory, whereas in Mészöly’s works the present tense is valorised and the narrative’s final goal is rejected. In their depiction of war, they can be seen as complementary works. Mészöly writes from the point of view of a soldier who has been to the front, while N.das writes from the point of view of a civilian. In this parallel reading, both the soldier and the civilian appear as victims of war.