“László Krasznahorkai’s War and war as an apocalyptic metahistorical novel” by Judit Görözdi in Hungarian Studies

“László Krasznahorkai’s War and war as an apocalyptic metahistorical novel” by Judit Görözdi in Hungarian Studies

The study of Judit Görözdi “László Krasznahorkai’s War and war as an apocalyptic metahistorical novel” has been published in Hungarian Studies, Volume 35 (2021): Issue 1 (Dec 2021):

“This paper looks at a novel by László Krasznahorkai in the context of the narrative turn in history, which also stimulated a revaluation of the fictional historical narrative. War and War was one of a series of Hungarian historical novels, or mixed novel formations with a historical theme, published at the turn of the millennium, whose primary aim was not to recount a self-assured historical tale but rather to highlight, via the story, the models/schemas/shifts/blank spaces in our present-day comprehension of the past. This paper interprets the novel with reference to historic-philosophical conceptions (Löwith, Koselleck), tracks its references to the Judaeo-Christian tradition, and argues that it transforms the teleological idea of the historical process into an apocalyptic model of history.” (Abstract)