Literary Journal 2022/3. Péter Hajnóczy

Péter Hajnóczy was born eighty years ago. His prose is a core experience of a generation, but it also addresses today's youth. His personality has been a cult phenomenon throughout his life, yet he is known as literary "one-hit wonder". His literary character is intertwined with that of the self-destructive artist, but recent studies have drawn attention to other aspects of his creative workshop. What remains to be discovered, therefore, are not only his writings, but also the results of research which, in the wake of professional reflections over the past decades, outline the timeless values of his prose from a poetic rather than a biographical perspective. By addressing the representatives of the academic community engaged with the author and by including the personal view of Hajnóczy by writers and colleagues, this issue aims to contribute to the establishment of the place of his oeuvre in the Hungarian literature of the second half of the 20th century. Our compilation emphasises text-centred presentation, while looking towards a social-historical perspective, and explores topical issues such as the role of the labourer-writer or the prose revolution, the care of the legacy or the dilemmas of Hajnóczy's representation in schools. The interviews, studies and analyses point out the genre and stylistic peculiarities of Hajnóczy's narrative style, highlight his connections with contemporary Hungarian and world literature, and provide insights into his life and his still enigmatic personality.

The texts are accompanied by archival portraits, photographs of his bequest, works by paradigm-shifting Hungarian artists contemporaneous with Hajnóczy and related to his literary approach, and illustrations and visual expressions from the present day.