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TIBOR GINTLI
Politics and literature, however, despite the parallels, follow a significantly
different approach to issues of national identity, and to noble and bourgeois
values. While, in public life, only radical parties with limited political influence
addressed the anachronistic nature of noble values, in the literary context,
with a few exceptions, this realization prevailed. Below, I present some typical
attitudes to noble and bourgeois values in the literature of the era, using the
example of four writers. Two of the authors, Kalman Mikszath and Gyula
Krúdy, belong to a circle of writers whose work reflects deliberately and
continuously on the obsolete nature of noble values. The prose of Zsigmond
Moricz represents a position according to which there is still no clear evidence
of the anachronistic nature of the noble lifestyle and the related national
identity. Finally, Dezsé Szab6 is a typical representative of conservative
nationalism, according to which the key to the development of the nation is
the amalgamation, or mythical marriage, of the two “pure” Hungarian social
classes: the Hungarian nobility and the Hungarian peasantry.
Kalman Mikszath’s novels that deal with such issues reflect, without
exception, on the anachronistic nature of noble values and the noble way of
life. This reflection leads to a dualism, characterized by both a nostalgic anda
comic-ironic perspective. The nostalgic attitude can be explained by the fact
that, in line with the Romantic interpretation of the noble tradition, the noble
was regarded as an exceptional personality, as the embodiment of ideal values,
and as someone who transcends the utilitarian pragmatism of the new age.
This aspect of the noble approach is perhaps best represented by sub-prefect
Gorgey, the protagonist of The Black Town, whose death is depicted as a tragic
event. The novel The Siege of Beszterce (Beszterce ostroma, 1896) presents
both points of view simultaneously. The protagonist, Count Istvan Pongracz,
is a quixotic figure, regarded as a fool for his lofty ideals and anachronistic
behaviour, while at the same time the implied author does not entirely deny
his character a certain moral grandeur. The New Zrinyidd (Uj Zrinyidsz, 1898)
presents the untenability of medieval values and behaviour in the context of a
satire. Due to a mistake on the part of Archangel Gabriel, Miklés Zrinyi and
his gallant soldiers, who were martyred during the wars against the Turks
in 1566, rise from the dead to find themselves in modern, bourgeois, urban
Hungary, where they feel distinctly out of place. In an allusion to the non¬
viability of the old noble mentality, there is no other authentic role left to them
following their resurrection than to die again in defense of their country. The
noble way of life is evaluated most critically in The Young Noszty’s Affair with
Mari Tóth, (A Noszty fiú esete Tóth Marival, 1908) where the noble family is
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