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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 nonviability 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 * 424 +
