Krasznahorkai’s New Novel and the Nobel Spotlight
On the occasion of László Krasznahorkai’s Nobel Prize, the University has launched a year-long series of events paying tribute to its former student. Running through the end of 2026, the program will include conferences, book launches, discussions, film screenings, and a wide range of other events.
At the opening event on 10 December 2025, the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony was broadcast live, followed by a screening of the author’s Nobel Lecture delivered on 7 December. The subsequent discussion featured ELTE literary historians Tibor Gintli, Sándor Radnóti, Gábor Schein, Flóra Szilák, and Edit Zsadányi, who explored the themes of Krasznahorkai’s latest novel, its poetic innovations, and its place within the broader context of his life’s work. Central to the discussion was the question of to what extent the novel continues, and to what extent it rearranges, the characteristic motifs of Krasznahorkai’s prose.
The participants agreed that the protagonist, András Papp—a poor, kind-hearted butterfly researcher devoted to his calling since childhood—can be linked to the earlier “angelic” figures of Krasznahorkai’s oeuvre. At the same time, an essential difference lies in the fact that he does not appear as a naïve character: he consciously chooses an attitude of love and acceptance. This deliberate form of “holiness” introduces a new dimension into the pattern of earlier characters defined by their unadorned purity. Several participants also noted that the prominently present “question of angels” in the novel resonates with the angelological motifs of Krasznahorkai’s Nobel Lecture.
Another key topic was the relationship between the two main figures, András Papp and the repeatedly named “László Krasznahorkai, writer.” The introduction of the authorial alter ego represents a strong autofictional gesture that extends the self-reflexive trajectory of earlier works (The Manhattan Project, The Last Wolf, Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens), here appearing in a previously unseen, markedly humorous, ironic, and at times parodic form. Most participants regarded this heightened self-irony as one of the novel’s most significant innovations.
A further highlight of the discussion was the observation that, in contrast to the early apocalyptic works, the novel is not unilaterally pessimistic. According to the participants, humor, playfulness, friendship, and small yet meaningful gestures shift the text toward the suggestion that the corruption of the world may not, after all, exclude the possibility of goodness.