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Imre Kertész

イムレ・ケルテス

Imre Kertesz

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1929-11-09 （Budapest, Hungary）
Died
2016-03-31 （Budapest, Hungary） age 86
Nationality
Hungarian
Languages
Hungarian, German
Religion
Judaism
Residence History
Budapest, Hungary → Berlin, Germany

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Journalist, Translator
Active Years
1948-2016
Influenced By
Friedrich Nietzsche (translated author), Ludwig Wittgenstein (translated/impactful thinker), Elias Canetti (translated author)

Education

Secondary school
Period: 〜1948
Year of Graduation: 1948
Country: Hungary
After secondary school graduation, worked as journalist and translator

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature
2002
Organization: The Swedish Academy
Result: 受賞
Kossuth Prize
1997
Organization: Hungarian government
Result: 受賞
Goethe Medal
2004
Organization: Goethe-Institut
Result: 受賞
Herder Prize
2000
Organization: Herder Prize Committee
Result: 受賞
YIVO Lifetime Achievement Award
2003
Organization: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Result: 受賞
Hans Sahl Prize
2002
Organization: Hans Sahl Prize Committee
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Fatelessness (Sorstalanság)

1975 Novel

The novel follows György Köves, a fifteen-year-old, through Auschwitz, Buchenwald and other camps, depicting the individual's fate against the arbitrariness of history; often read as quasi-autobiographical.

HolocaustSurvivalIndividual dignityMemory
Adaptations
  • [Film] Fateless (film) / Lajos Koltai (2005)
Translations
  • English translations by Tim Wilkinson; Christopher C. Wilson & Katharina M. Wilson

Kaddish for an Unborn Child

1990 Novel

A monologue of a Holocaust survivor grappling with fatherhood, guilt and the ritual of Kaddish for a child never born; explores loss, responsibility, language and memory.

LossGuilt and responsibilityMemory
Translations
  • English translations by Christopher C. Wilson & Katharina M. Wilson; Tim Wilkinson

Liquidation (Felszámolás)

2003 Novel

Set during Hungary's transition from communism to democracy, the novel deals with an individual's psychological crisis and suicide.

Political transitionDepressionPersonal freedom
Translations
  • English translation by Tim Wilkinson

Fiasco (A kudarc)

1988 Novel

Part of a trilogy following Fatelessness, the novel interrogates fate, failure and the individual's relation to history.

FateHistoryAbsurdity of existence
Translations
  • English translation by Tim Wilkinson

Dossier K (K. dosszié)

2006 Novel / Fragments

A fragmented work that questions the relationship between history and the individual through memories and episodic experience.

Fragmented memoryHistory and the individual
Translations
  • English translation by Tim Wilkinson

The Final Tavern (A végső kocsma)

2014 Novel / Essays

A late work containing essayistic elements reflecting on culture, memory and Europe's legacy.

Europe's legacyCultural memory

Bibliography

  • Fatelessness (Sorstalanság) (1975)
  • The Pathseeker (A nyomkereső) (1977)
  • Detective Story (Detektívtörténet) (1977)
  • Fiasco (A kudarc) (1988)
  • Kaddish for an Unborn Child (1990)
  • Liquidation (2003)
  • Dossier K (2006)
  • The Final Tavern (2014)

Adaptations

  • Film adaptation of Fateless (director: Lajos Koltai, 2005)

Translations by Author

  • Friedrich Nietzsche (translated into Hungarian)
  • Sigmund Freud (translated into Hungarian)
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein (translated into Hungarian)
  • Elias Canetti (translated into Hungarian)

Translations of Works

  • Fatelessness (Sorstalanság) — translated into English
  • Kaddish for an Unborn Child — translated into English
  • Liquidation — translated into English

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Concise, detached proseOccasionally fragmentary or essayistic structureNear-first-person narration
Recurring Motifs
Memory and forgettingIndividual dignityViolence of historyCrisis of identity

Health

  • Parkinson's disease
    晩年（診断年は公表されていないが、2010年代に症状が現れる）
    Affected mobility and daily life in later years, placing limits on public activities and writing.
  • Recurrent depression
    生涯を通じて断続的に発症
    Reflected in his literary themes and affected his private life and the content of some works.
  • Right hip injury (surgery in 2013)
    2013年以降
    Underwent surgery and recovered, but it compounded health problems in later years.

Legacy

Kertész was internationally acclaimed for reexamining personal experience and memory of the Holocaust in literature; he became the first Hungarian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002. His work holds an important place in Holocaust and memory studies and discussions of individual vs. history.

Academic Societies

  • Academy of Arts, Berlin (recipient of his literary estate)

Archives

  • Materials on Nobelprize.org and Nobel archives
  • Holdings and papers in Hungarian national libraries/archives

In Popular Culture

  • Fatelessness was adapted into a film and is widely taught in schools.

Quotes

  • For writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history.
    Source: The Nobel Prize Committee (award citation, 2002) (2002)
  • 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 ... and the very possibility of the Holocaust.
    Source: Interview/essay (widely cited) (2001)

Trivia

  • First Hungarian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (2002).
  • Deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and later sent to Buchenwald; he survived the camps.
  • His best-known novel Fatelessness was adapted into a film (2005); Kertész contributed to the screenplay.