Oldal 468 [468]
BELA ZSOLT, THE HUNGARIAN “SOCIOLOGIST OF JEWRY”
identity, or at least he considers it as an irrelevant attribute of his identity,
even if he is in a sort of soul-search himself. However, his handling of Jewish
self-identification is not self-deceptive as in Gerson’s case because Dr. Hell
does not actually see the significance of his roots, whether religiously, or with
his ancestry. Not surprisingly, the first instance of the word zsidó in this novel
is not even about him; some of his friends are talking about a man who later
will never be mentioned again:
Ottó Kerz, a dentist, wanted to become an anthropologist and now heis passionately
demonstrating that the Jewish intellectual’s and rebel’s only way out is Zionism.”
Ott6 Kerz is an insignificant character in the world of the novel, similarly
to the role of the Jewish intelligentsia; therefore, this occurrence illustrates
both the narration’s and the main character’s attitude towards Jewishness.
This negligence is strikingly and beautifully used in the novel; its implication
is the ambivalence of the assimilated attitude of the contemporary Jew (not
caring about being Jewish) and the impossibility of an actual assimilation
(because of being viewed Jewish by society). Eventually, Hell’s lack and
failure of self-identification becomes his fatality, thus legitimizing the fact
that this negligence and ambivalence evolve into self-destruction. Another
example of the author’s intentional use of ambivalence can be traced back
on a metaphorical level in the plot as well: the main character engages in
important business on a Saturday ignoring the Sabbath laws, but at one other
time, eagerly tries to pray in Hebrew.
The last of Zsolt’s novels to be discussed, The Woman from the Riverside
of the Danube, is the deepest and most complexly worked out one in terms
of Jewish identification. Here the narrator speaks in the first-person singular,
presenting himself as a self-aware Jewish man. The first mention of his
Jewish identity is in the form of a corporeal description, which technique
will be discussed in the next section. Nonetheless, the most articulate Jewish
identification technique in this novel is the embodiment of fear. The era’s
“Jewish fear”?°, which can only be cognizable from the narrator-protagonist,
speaks for itself through the key sentence of the novel:
"Kerz Ottó fogorvos, antropológus akart lenni, és most szenvedélyesen bizonyítja, hogy a
zsidó entellektüel és forradalmár számára egyetlen kivezető út a cionizmus." In Béla Zsolt:
Kínos Ügy, Budapest, Ulpius-häz Könyvkiadö, 2008, 18.
Here I am not referring to any established notion; my denotation only aims to mark an idea
that can be perceived as a culmination of the “Jewish inconvenience” Zsolt depicts in his
works.
+ 467 "