Description as Self-Reflection in Zsigmond Justh's Művész szerelem

Dian, Viktória (2005) Description as Self-Reflection in Zsigmond Justh's Művész szerelem. Hungarian Studies, 19 (2). pp. 277-293. ISSN 0236-6568

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Abstract

This paper focuses on a forgotten Hungarian author's forgotten novel. Zsigmond Justh's Művész szerelem [Artist's Love] was published in 1888 and considered to be a “styleroman”, because a number of artistic styles meet in the landscapes it depicts, involving the basic changes in literature from realism to imressionism, Art Nouveau, symbolism, and naturalism. This study examines these descriptive parts of the novel because they provide a peculiar type of self-reflection. The analysis starts with the description of a character's appearence which can be conceived as a narrative representation of portraiture. Then two narrated landscapes reflecting on their own compositions are examined. The aim of the paper is to establish that most of the descriptive parts have the same function in the novel: they denaturalize the spectacle, representing a created visual structure which refers to the text itself, and builts on a narrative mechanism disavowing the realistic illusion. Finally, the analysis concludes that description can be regarded as mise en abyme in the novel because the descriptive parts illustrate the priority of the artist's subjectivity in art just as the whole novel realises this aesthetical idea as well.

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