László Krasznahorkai: Difference between revisions

László Krasznahorkai
Born	(1954-01-05)January 5, 1954 Gyula, Hungary
Died	living
Occupation	Novelist, screenwriter
Language	Hungarian, German
Nationality	Hungarian
Alma mater	Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) (University of Budapest) József Attila University (JATE) (University of Szeged)
Genre	novels, short stories, screenplays
Literary movement	Postmodernism
Notable works	Sátántangó (1985) The Melancholy of Resistance (1989) War and War (1999)
Notable awards	Kossuth Prize DAAD fellowship
Spouse	(1) ? (2) Dorka ?
Children	three
Website
http://www.krasznahorkai.hu/

László Krasznahorkai (Template:IPA-hu; born 5 January 1954) is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter who is known for critically difficult, demanding postmodernist novels with dystopian and melancholic themes. Several of his novels, notably Satantango (Sátántangó) (1985) and The Melancholy of Resistance (Az ellenállás melankóliája) (1989) have been turned into feature films by Hungarian film director Bela Tarr.

Biography

Krasznahorkai was born in Gyula in the Republic of Hungary on 5 January 1954. After completing his secondary education in 1972 at the Erkel Ferenc high school where he specialized in Latin, he studied law from 1973 to 1976 at József Attila University (JATE) (now the University of Szeged) and from 1976 to 1978 at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) (formerly the University of Budapest). After completing these law studies, he sought a degree in Hungarian language and literature from Eötvös Loránd University. As a requirement of his degree work, he submitted a formal thesis on the work and experiences of Hungarian writer and journalist Márai Sándor (1900-1989) after he fled Hungary in 1948 to escape the Communist regime seized power after World War II (Sándor lived in exile in Italy and later San Diego, California). Krasznahorkai received his degree in 1983.

After completing his university studies, Krasznahorkai has supported himself as an independent author since then. When in 1985 his first major publication Satantango achieved success, he was immediately thrust into the forefront of Hungarian literary life.

He travelled outside of Communist Hungary for the first time in 1987, spending a year in West Berlin as a recipient of a DAAD fellowship. Since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, he has lived in a variety of locations. He returns often to both Germany and Hungary, but he has also spent and spends varying lengths of time in France, Spain, the USA, England, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, China and Japan.

In 1993, his novel The Melancholy of Resistance received the German “Bestenliste-Prize” for the best literary work of the year. From the United States to Japan, critics have acknowledged the importance of his writing. According to Susan Sontag, he is “the contemporary Hungarian master of apocalypse who inspires comparison with Gogol and Melville”. W. G. Sebald had this to say: “The universality of Krasznahorkai's vision rivals that of Gogol's Dead Souls and far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary writing.” In 1996, he was a guest of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. While completing the novel War and War, he travelled widely across Europe. The American poet Allen Ginsberg was of great assistance in completing the work; Krasznahorkai resided for some time in Ginsberg’s New York apartment, and the poet’s friendly advice was invaluable in bringing the book to life.

In 1990, for the first time, he was able to spend a longer period in East Asia. Krasznahorkai renders an account of his experiences in Mongolia and China in his works The Prisoner of Urga and Ruin and Sorrow beneath the Heavens. From this point, he has returned many times to China. In 1996, 2000 and 2005 he spent six months in Kyoto, Japan.

Since 1985, the renowned director and the author's good friend Béla Tarr has made films almost exclusively based on Krasznahorkais works, including Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies. His collaboration with Tarr continues to this day: Krasznahorkai writes the screenplays, and assists the director in all important decisions.

His works have been translated into English (New Directions Publishers), into German (Rowohlt, Ammann, S. Fischer), French (Gallimard, Cambourakis), Spanish (Acantilado), Polish (W.A.B.), Czech (Host, Mlada Fronta), Bulgarian (Stigmati), Hebrew (Babel) and Japanese (Shoraisha, Keio), among other languages.

Krasznahorkai has been honoured with numerous literary prizes, among them the highest award of the Hungarian state, the Kossuth Prize. In 2008, he was the S. Fischer guest professor at the Free University of Berlin. He has three children, and since 2007 has lived in Berlin with his second wife, Dorka Krasznahorkai, who is a Sinologist and graphic designer.

Works

Krasznahorkai's work have a limited audience outside of Hungary and Germany. Only with recent translations of Satantango, The Melancholy of Resistance and War and War and Animalinside (a collaboration with artist Max Neumann) in English by George Szirtes and published by New Directions has his work received criticial notice in the United States. Further, because Béla Tarr's films are limited in distribution and seen as experimental and intellectually opaque, his impact on film has not received much popular notice.

In addition to the English translations of his work published by New Directions, his works have been translated into German (published by Rowohlt, Ammann, S. Fischer), French (Gallimard, Cambourakis), Spanish (Acantilado), Polish (W.A.B.), Czech (Host, Mlada Fronta), Bulgarian (Stigmati), Hebrew (Babel) and Japanese (Shoraisha, Keio), among other languages.

Books

• 1985: Satantango (Sátántangó), novel.
• 1986: Relations of Grace (Kegyelmi viszonyok), short stories.
• 1989: The Melancholy of Resistance (Az ellenállás melankóliája), novel.
• 1992: The Prisoner of Urga (Az urgai fogoly), novel.
• 1993: Theseus' Rules (A Théseus-általános), three lectures.
• 1999: War and War (Háború és háború), novel.
• 2003: From North a Hill, from South a Lake, from East a Road, from West a River (Északról hegy, Délről tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletről folyó), novel.
• 2004: Ruin and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens (Rombolás és bánat az Ég alatt), novel.
• 2008: Seiobo There Below (Seiobo járt odalent), novel.
• 2009: The Last of the Wolves (Az utolsó farkas), a short story.

Screenplays for films

• 1988: Damnation (Kárhozat), directed by Béla Tarr.
• 1994: Sátántangó, directed by Béla Tarr.
• 1997-2001: Werckmeister Harmonies (Werckmeister harmóniák), directed by Béla Tarr.
• 2007: The Man from London (A Londoni férfi), directed by Béla Tarr.
• 2011: The Turin Horse (A torinói ló), directed by Béla Tarr.

Honors and Awards

• 2010: Bestenliste-Prize (2nd) (Germany) for Seiobo There Below
• 2010: Brücke-Berlin Prize (Berlin, Germany)
• 2010: Spycher-Prize (Leuk, Switzerland)
• 2009: Prize of the Society of Writers (Budapest, Hungary)
• 2008: Hungarian Heritage-Award, (Budapest, Hungary)
• 2007: Nominated for Jean Monnet Prize (France)
• 2004: Kossuth Prize
• 2003: Soros Foundation Prize
• 2002: Laureate of the Hungarian Republic (Magyar Köztársaság Babérkoszorúja)
• 1998: Márai Sándor Prize
• 1993: Krúdy Gyula Prize
• 1993: Bestenliste-Prize (Baden-Baden, Germany) for The Melancholy of Resistence
• 1992: Déry Tibor Award
• 1987-1988: DAAD Fellowship, West Berlin
• 1987: József Attila Prize
• 1987: Mikes Kelemen Kör Prize (The Netherlands)

References

• Edit Zsadanyi, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Kalligram, Bratislava,1999
• Template:FrAbout The Melancholy of Resistance
• Template:FrAbout Sátántangó

External links

• Home page
• David Auerbach, "The Mythology of László Krasznahorkai," The Quarterly Conversation, June 7, 2010
• James Wood, "Madness and Civilization: The very strange fictions of László Krasznahorkai," The New Yorker, July 4, 2011, pp. 71–75.
• Andrew Ervin, "Hungary for More," Philadelphia City Paper, January 18–25, 2001.