For Laszlo Krasznahorkai, literature has never been about chasing fame. It has always been about capturing a vision, one that lives in the shadow of chaos, in the heart of the absurd, and in sentences that stretch beyond the ordinary.
On Thursday, the 71-year-old Hungarian novelist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art,” the Swedish Academy said.
Born in the small border town of Gyula in southeast Hungary, Krasznahorkai has often spoken of his deep debt to Franz Kafka. “When I am not reading Kafka I am thinking about Kafka. When I am not thinking about Kafka I miss thinking about him,” he once said, as quoted by bloomberg.
His prose reflects this devotion, sprawling, unpunctuated, and drenched in melancholy, a style that has earned him the nickname "master of the apocalypse," coined by American critic Susan Sontag.
Krasznahorkai burst into the literary scene in 1985 with Satantango, a haunting tale of a destitute community awaiting a miracle in an abandoned Hungarian farm just before communism’s collapse.
The novel, set in a bleak and isolated world, established his reputation as a writer whose work merges epic scale with philosophical depth. “I didn’t write Satantango at a desk, I wrote it in my head,” he told the Louisiana Channel in 2019, as reported by Bloomberg. “I never wanted to achieve anything with my books. I just wanted to tell the stories I needed to tell.”
His other novel, The Melancholy of Resistance (1989), cemented his voice, a feverish horror fantasy where anarchy reigns and a ghostly circus arrives in a small town, carrying the carcass of a giant whale. Themes of chaos, human fragility, and resistance echo throughout his works.
Krasznahorkai sees literature as an act of moral witness. In February this year, he spoke out in The Yale Review against Russia’s war in Ukraine, condemning Hungary’s political support for President Vladimir Putin. “The world is starting to get used to it. I cannot get used to it,” he wrote.
For the Nobel committee, Krasznahorkai’s achievement lies not just in style, but in vision. “It is his artistic gaze, entirely free of illusion, that sees through the fragility of the social order, combined with an unwavering belief in the power of art,” said Academy member Steve Sem-Sandberg.
His prose marked by weighty, rolling sentences devoid of full stops invites readers into a meditative experience where language itself becomes a landscape of thought.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hailed the award, calling Krasznahorkai “the pride of Hungary.” But the author remains modest. Asked about his inspiration, Krasznahorkai told the Nobel Foundation: “The bitterness. It is a very, very dark time to be alive. I am very sad if I think of the status of the world now, and this is my deepest inspiration.”
For Krasznahorkai, the Nobel Prize is not an end, but a quiet affirmation. “Literature exists in itself, beyond various non-literary expectations, and it is still being read,” he said.
The 11 million-krona ($1.2 million) award comes as part of the Nobel tradition of recognising voices that change the way we see the world. Krasznahorkai joins a lineage of bold storytellers whose works, in Kafka’s shadow and far beyond, challenge, disturb, and inspire.
With inputs from AFP and Bloomberg
On Thursday, the 71-year-old Hungarian novelist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art,” the Swedish Academy said.
Born in the small border town of Gyula in southeast Hungary, Krasznahorkai has often spoken of his deep debt to Franz Kafka. “When I am not reading Kafka I am thinking about Kafka. When I am not thinking about Kafka I miss thinking about him,” he once said, as quoted by bloomberg.
His prose reflects this devotion, sprawling, unpunctuated, and drenched in melancholy, a style that has earned him the nickname "master of the apocalypse," coined by American critic Susan Sontag.
Krasznahorkai burst into the literary scene in 1985 with Satantango, a haunting tale of a destitute community awaiting a miracle in an abandoned Hungarian farm just before communism’s collapse.
The novel, set in a bleak and isolated world, established his reputation as a writer whose work merges epic scale with philosophical depth. “I didn’t write Satantango at a desk, I wrote it in my head,” he told the Louisiana Channel in 2019, as reported by Bloomberg. “I never wanted to achieve anything with my books. I just wanted to tell the stories I needed to tell.”
His other novel, The Melancholy of Resistance (1989), cemented his voice, a feverish horror fantasy where anarchy reigns and a ghostly circus arrives in a small town, carrying the carcass of a giant whale. Themes of chaos, human fragility, and resistance echo throughout his works.
Krasznahorkai sees literature as an act of moral witness. In February this year, he spoke out in The Yale Review against Russia’s war in Ukraine, condemning Hungary’s political support for President Vladimir Putin. “The world is starting to get used to it. I cannot get used to it,” he wrote.
For the Nobel committee, Krasznahorkai’s achievement lies not just in style, but in vision. “It is his artistic gaze, entirely free of illusion, that sees through the fragility of the social order, combined with an unwavering belief in the power of art,” said Academy member Steve Sem-Sandberg.
His prose marked by weighty, rolling sentences devoid of full stops invites readers into a meditative experience where language itself becomes a landscape of thought.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hailed the award, calling Krasznahorkai “the pride of Hungary.” But the author remains modest. Asked about his inspiration, Krasznahorkai told the Nobel Foundation: “The bitterness. It is a very, very dark time to be alive. I am very sad if I think of the status of the world now, and this is my deepest inspiration.”
For Krasznahorkai, the Nobel Prize is not an end, but a quiet affirmation. “Literature exists in itself, beyond various non-literary expectations, and it is still being read,” he said.
The 11 million-krona ($1.2 million) award comes as part of the Nobel tradition of recognising voices that change the way we see the world. Krasznahorkai joins a lineage of bold storytellers whose works, in Kafka’s shadow and far beyond, challenge, disturb, and inspire.
With inputs from AFP and Bloomberg
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