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ALEXANDRA M. SZABO technique of identification. I demonstrate how the novels assume the truth of corporeal differentiation between Jewish and non-Jewish in the contemporary understanding of interwar Hungary. Keywords: Béla Zsolt, Jewish identity representation, literary representations, narrative techniques, Jewish inconvenience, the Jewish body The Jew is one whom other men consider a Jew: that is the simple truth from which we must start. — Jean Paul Sartre Béla Zsolt, Hungarian poet, writer and journalist, was born in Komärom at the end of the 19" century, in the empire of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Due to the hasty jumps in political situations, national identity was a constantly changing construction in the region and typical of the era. Therefore, not surprisingly, Zsolt’s significant life events occur in the course of historical changes, which directly point at his ideological turns. I will discuss these points on an introductory level, as it well help in the understanding of his (change of) thought, which he dedicated not only his career, but his life to. Subsequently, I will be mainly concentrating on his projections of contemporary social problems in the interwar period, most significantly of the anti-Jewish atmosphere and its consequences. In order to bring the issue of Hungarian anti-Semitism into public discourse, Zsolt exploited the forms of prose and journalistic pieces, leaving poetry somewhat behind.’ I will base my reasoning on four of his novels in order to outline the role and importance of Jewish identity and identification represented in them. I will analyze three main identification techniques used in the selected works: narrative positions, the inconvenience of the Jewish identity, and the representation of the Jewish body. Rereading and reviewing Zsolt’s work not only helps us in understanding the interpretation of the “Jewish Question” from another viewpoint, but opens up operative and ontological dimensions in the understanding of the construction of the Jewish identity and identification on a micro-level. At a young age, presumably due to some family problems, Zsolt found himself strongly believing in and thus following the ideology of Hungarian nationalism. His view on the importance of the Hungarian national identity “Now you can see (...) that I couldn’t stick to poems. (...) You do think I am right when I say I cannot do it any other way, don’t you? When bombs, stink bombs, Jew beatings, underworld maneuvers bring the subject matter, it is very hard to write poems! The era, this age forces me not to use my pen to write poetry, but for a weapon.” Quoted by Clara Royer in her study published not only in French, but Hungarian: Clara Royer: A VI. és VII. keriiletpublicistaja? Zsolt Béla elkötelezett magyarsága, Múlt és Jövő, No.2, 2015, 82. * 462 +
