[biography] - [quotes] - [publications]
1969 A látogató (et. 1974 The Caseworker) A novel - a journey to darkness
and total human misery. The narrator is a social worker, a certain T.,
who has to take care of a mentally retarded child, orphaned after his
parents' suicide. The action of the book is restricted to one single
day, but this gains a symbolic importance - it represents the whole
life of the narrator. This is a world of grey and unredeemable tenement
houses, of sick and miserable people forgotten by both God and history.
The inner monologue of the caseworker starts with the attempt of ironic
objectivity, but mere description is slowly replaced by reflexion and
fantasy, all pointing towards a deep understanding and unwilling compassion
with these people. "The setting of my book is grey and dull; this
is the consequence of the chosen situation - I will take full responsibility
for writing it. One fifth of our society lives in misery and it seems
that it will go on living in such a situation for a very long time."
(György Konrád)
1977 A városalapító (et. 1977 The City Builder) An essayistic novel
on an unnamed architect who presents his views on his privileged position
as an intellectual in socialism in a long interior monologue. The writer's
opinion is evident from his ironic approach towards his 'hero': "After
the noble and the bourgeois, we are finally here to control history.
We have erased the right of wealth and nobility to power: from now on
the only right to make decisions will be provided by nomination".
1980 Az autonómia kísértése (et. The Temptation of Autonomy) Essays.
Konrád presents the readers with the reasons and circumstances of the
role he played in the democratic opposition.
1989 Az értelmiség útja az osztályhatalomhoz (et. 1979 The Intellectuals
on the Road to Class Power) A long monographic essay written together
with Iván Szelényi, aiming to clarify the role intellectuals as a class
played in socialism. The book was written during the years 1973-74,
and had its first Hungarian edition in Paris, 1978.
1989 Az autonómia kísértése - Antipolitika (et. 1984 Antipolitics) A
political essay that takes sides against a black-and white view of politics
where both sides are convinced of their sole possession of the Truth.
His intellectual objectivity and sensibility may serve as a model for
modern political thought. "Antipolitics displays the author's spiritual
resistance against an overconfident Power." (György Konrád)
1983 A cinkos (et. 1982 The Loser) A novel written between 1975-78.
The fate of its hero reflects the history of Hungary and Eastern-Europe
in the twentieth century: war, captivity, political work and career,
political trial, the government of Imre Nagy, arrest, civil life and
then voluntary exile to an asylum. If The City Builder provides the
theory, this book provides the practice: it shows the decisions and
compromises a leftist intellectual is bound to make.
1989 Agenda 1. - Kerti mulatság (et. 1992 A Feast in the Garden) A novel.
1990 Európa köldökén (et. On the Navel of Europe) Essays on Europe.
1994 Kőóra (et. Clock of Stone) Novel; a description of an urban society
with its intellectuals and egoists. "György Konrád's Clock of stone
is a novel dealing with the trauma felt by Hungarians during communism;
this is the reason why the book does not have a linear plot, but it's
constructed to parallel the fragmented way human memory works."
(Konrad Paul Liessmann)
1995 Hazatérés (et. Homecoming) Short stories.
1996 Áramló leltár (et. Constant Inventory) Aphorisms.
1996 Az újjászületés melankóliája (1995 et. The Melancholy of Rebirth)
Essays.
1997 A birodalom kapuiban (et. At the Gates of the Empire) Essays.
1997 Hagyaték (et. Heritage) Novel; the meditations of major Antal Tombor
on the nineties.
1997 A láthatatlan hang (et. The Invisible Voice) Essays on identity:
"It is a double accident that I was born a Jew and a Hungarian.
Both are renowned for being ill-fated nations. It is evident that the
existence of a white Anglo-Saxon protestant, for example, is less questionable
than that of a Hungarian, a Jew, or a Hungarian Jew."
(György Konrád)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS
A látogató
The Case Worker. Translated by Paul Aston. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich [1974]; London: Hutchinson, 1975.; With an Introduction by
Irving Howe. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books, 1987.
Frankfurt am Main: Luchterhand, 1973, 1991., tr. by M Szenessy.
also: in French, Dutch, Japanese, Finnish, Swedish, Italian, Norwegian,
Danish
A városalapító
The City Builder. Translated by Ivan Sanders. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1977.; With an Introduction by Carlos Fuentes.
New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books, 1987.
München: List, 1975., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
also: in French, Spanish, Dutch
Az értelmiség útja az osztályhatalomhoz.
The Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power (With Ivan Szelenyi); translated
by Andrew Arato and Richard E. Allen. New York : Foreign Language Publications:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1978.
also: in French
A cinkos
The Loser; translated by Ivan Sanders. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1982.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
also: in French, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, Hebrew
Antipolitika
Antipolitics: an essay; translated by Richard E. Allen. San Diego: Harcourt,
Brace, Jovanovich, 1984.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
also: in Swedish
Kerti mulatság
A Feast in the Garden; translated by Imre Goldstein. New York: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1986., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
also: in French, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Spanish
Az újjászületés melankóliája
The Melancholy of Rebirth: essays from post-communist Central Europe,
1989-1994; selected and translated by Michael Henry Heim. San Diego
: Harcourt Brace, 1995.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1992., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
Hangulatjelentés
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1986., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
also: in Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian
Melinda és Dragomán
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1991., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
also: in Dutch, Swedish
Hazatérés
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1995., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
essays:
Essays. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993.
Identität und Hysterie. tr. by H.-H. Paetzke. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp,
1995.
Jewish Essays. Stockholm: Bonniers, 1992.
Eine Stimme aus Mitteleuropa Hans-Peter Burmeister. Rehburg-Loccum/Evangelische
Akademie Loccum, 6/1996.
A birodalom kapuiban
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997., tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
Kőóra
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1996, tr. by H.-H. Paetzke.
Stockholm: Bonnier Alba, 1995.
Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1996.
Forthcoming: in Norwegian, Danish, American-English
Forthcoming:
Die unsichtbare Stimme. tr. by H.-H. Paetzke. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp,
1998.
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