The Concept of Language in Sándor Márai: the Exile in Naples

The Concept of Language in Sándor Márai: the Exile in Naples

PAPP, Judit

Key words: Márai, Exile, Naples, Language, Diaries ABSTRACT The famous Hungarian writer Sándor Márai (1900-1989) spent, with his wife Lola and adopted son János, his first period of voluntary exile in Naples (Italy) between October 1948 and April 1952. The Diaries which Márai started to keep already in 1943 represent an interesting source to reconstruct his experiences and everyday life in the Mediterranean city only a few years after the war. Among others, he had to find a way to communicate with the local inhabitants for everyday purposes, he met outstanding exponents of the intellectual and cultural life of the city and he frequented the libraries and museums. Also in this new, ‘foreign’ context in a certain number of entries he continues to deal with the question of language(s) and with the role that the Hungarian language played in his life and he describes also the extremely slow creative process that lead to his poem Funeral Sermon. Thereby, in this paper I’ll concentrate on these specific passages to throw light on how the exile affected and shaped Márai’s concept of language.

Article
PeerReviewed

IBU Publishing

2013-05-03

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