1988. július (161-183. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2

- 2 Szentkuthy, who was born and lived in the Eastern corner of Central Europe, vehemently refused the charge of "escaping intő the pást". He quoted Goethe who held that those passionately interested in the pást are, in fact, troubled by the most timely issues of their own age. True enough, in the small countries of East-Central Europe everything - and the opposite of everything - can take piacé, just as in Szentkuthy’s novels. There can be war or peace, sta- bilization or crisis, fascism, communism and chauvinism can emerge. Fór the individual in East-Central Europe everything is in a transient state. The truths of today may turn out to be the lies of tomorrow. Nothing can be taken fór granted and the words preached always prove to be false, wherever they came from.

Bút those strange natives living there would persistently want to believe in something and, as a result, Szentkuthy induced vehement reactions from the time his first works were published. He himself found a unique idea to cling onto: the Catholic faith. His favourite reading was the naive Biography of Saints, bút he was no less interested in the libertine adventures of renaissance bishops and did nőt miss the chance to gently mock his own faith.

Szentkuthy distributes his mentally experienced roles and choices among his characters bút at the same time his life takes after theirs. He is a Hungárián with Transylvanian Saxon origins (his original name was Pfisterer). His father, a descendant of a patrician family was a municipal official; his mother was of humble birth. He shared his priváté inferno with rincesses, bishops, textilé workers and zealous party agitators.

After the security of middle-class existence he found himself in the chaos of war and the ensuing Communist régime. First he was condemned to silence, fór in the closed and regimented creed of Marxism there was no room fór his perception of the world. Later those who had silenced him (George Lukács and his disciples) were similarly suppressed, bút Szentkuthy was nőt rehabili- tated.

Finally, after the fali of Stalinism and the revolution in Hungary, in a new act of the commedia dell’arte, he received every recognition and all his books were published. The same critics who had earlier called him a charlatan, are now outdoing each other in praising him; nőt more than three months ago, after a series of literary prices and decorations, he was awarded the greatest distinction, the Kossuth Price. What will tomorrow bring? Eternal peace fór Miklós Szentkuthy bút subsequent acts in this cruel merry-in-tears drama fór his compatriots. A drama that is less merry and more in tears.

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