Imre Kertész (Hungarian:[ˈimrɛˈkɛrteːs]; 9 November 1929 – 31 March 2016) was a Hungarian author and recipient of the2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history".[4] He was the first Hungarian to win the Nobel in Literature. His works deal with themes ofthe Holocaust (he was a survivor of German concentration and death camps), dictatorship, and personal freedom.[2]
Kertész was born in Budapest, Hungary, on 9 November 1929, the son of Aranka Jakab and László Kertész,[5] a middle-classJewish couple. After his parents separated when he was around the age of five, Kertész attended a boarding school, and, in 1940, he started secondary school where he was put into a special class for Jewish students.[6] DuringWorld War II, Kertész was deported in 1944 at the age of 14 with otherHungarian Jews to theAuschwitz concentration camp, and was later sent toBuchenwald.[7] Upon his arrival at Auschwitz, Kertész claimed to be a 16-year-old worker, thus saving him from the instant extermination that awaited a 14-year-old person.[8] After his camp was liberated in 1945, Kertész returned to Budapest,[9] graduated from high school in 1948,[10] and then went on to find work as a journalist and translator. In 1951, he lost his job at the journalVilágosság (Clarity), after the publication started leaning towards Communism.[9] For a short term, he worked as a factory worker, and then in the press department of the Ministry of Heavy Industry.[3] From 1953, he started freelance journalism and translated various works into Hungarian, includingFriedrich Nietzsche,Sigmund Freud,Ludwig Wittgenstein, andElias Canetti.[2]
His best-known work,Fatelessness (Sorstalanság), describes the experience of 15-year-old György (George) Köves in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, andZeitz. Written between 1969 and 1973, the novel was initially rejected for publication by the Communist regime in Hungary, but was published in 1975.[2] Some have interpreted the book as quasi-autobiographical, but the author disavows a strong biographical connection. The book would go on to become part of many high school curriculums in Hungary.[2] In 2005, afilm based on the novel, for which he wrote the script, was made in Hungary.[11] Although sharing the same title, some reviews noted that the film was more autobiographical than the novel on which it was based. It was released internationally at various dates in 2005 and 2006.
Following on fromFatelessness, Kertész'sFiasco (1988) andKaddish for an Unborn Child (1990) are, respectively, the second and third parts of his Holocaust trilogy.[9] His writings translated into English includeKaddish for an Unborn Child (Kaddis a meg nem született gyermekért) andLiquidation (Felszámolás), the latter set during the period of Hungary's evolution into a democracy from communist rule.[2]
From the beginning, Kertész found little appreciation for his writing in Hungary,[7] and he moved to Germany, where he received more active support from publishers and reviewers, along with more appreciative readers. After his move, he continued translating German works into Hungarian,[7] notablyThe Birth of Tragedy, the plays ofDürrenmatt,Schnitzler, andTankred Dorst, and various thoughts and aphorisms ofWittgenstein. Kertész also continued working at his craft, writing his fiction in Hungarian, but did not publish another novel until the late 1980s.[11] From that point on, he submitted his work to publishers in Hungary. Grateful that he had found his most significant success as a writer and artist in Germany, Kertész left hisabatement to theAcademy of Arts inBerlin.[6]
In November 2013, Kertész underwent successful surgery on his right hip, after falling down in his home.[12] However, he continued to deal with various health concerns during the last few years of his life. He was diagnosed withParkinson's disease, and was again suffering fromdepression, reported to have been a recurring battle in his life. In fact, Kertész had struggled with this same issue in his writing, as the main character of his 2003 bookFelszámolás (Liquidation) commits suicide after struggling with depression.[3]
Kertész died on 31 March 2016, at the age of 86, at his home in Budapest, after suffering from Parkinson's for several years.[13][3]
Kertész was a controversial figure within Hungary, especially since being Hungary's first, and only,Nobel Laureate in Literature, he still lived in Germany. This tension was exacerbated by a 2009 interview withDie Welt, in which Kertész vowed himself a "Berliner" and called Budapest "completely balkanized".[14][15] 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".[16] Kertész later clarified in aDuna TV interview that he had intended his comment to be "constructive", and called Hungary "his homeland".[16]
Also controversial was Kertész's criticism ofSteven Spielberg's depiction of the Holocaust in the 1993 filmSchindler'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 (whether in the private sphere or on the level of 'civilization' as such) and the very possibility of the Holocaust."[17]
In November 2014, Kertész was the subject of an interview withThe 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."[18]
Fateless, translated by Christopher C. Wilson and Katharina M. Wilson (1992). Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.ISBN978-0-8101-1049-6 andISBN978-0-8101-1024-3
Kaddish for a Child Not Born, translated by Christopher C. Wilson and Katharina M. Wilson (1997). Evanston, Illinois: Hydra Books.ISBN978-0-8101-1161-5
Kaddish for an Unborn Child, translated by Tim Wilkinson (2004), New York: Vintage International.ISBN978-1-4000-7862-2
Vasvári, Louise O., and Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven, eds.Imre Kertész and Holocaust Literature. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2005.ISBN978-1-55753-396-8
Vasvári, Louise O., and Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven, eds.Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2009.ISBN978-1-55753-526-9
