Individual, Society, and System: Philosophy of History in Sándor Márai’s Late Fiction

Garbacik-Balakowicz, Magdalena (2023) Individual, Society, and System: Philosophy of History in Sándor Márai’s Late Fiction. Central European Cultures, 3 (2). pp. 79-98.

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Abstract

This paper examines Sándor Márai’s (1900–1989) views on the nature of historical processes, focusing on his late fiction, i.e., novels published in exile. Three novels are selected for the analysis: San Gennaro vére (1965, The Blood of San Gennaro), Ítélet Canudosban (1970, Judgment at Canudos), and Erősítő (1975, Comforter). The analysis focuses on the relationship between the individual and society. The article examines the role Márai attributed to the individual in the historical process. The paper points out further components of Márai’s reflection: the mutual conditioning of the individual and society, the transformation of society into a system understood as a mass society, and the cyclical nature of historical processes.

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