László Krasznahorkai is a Hungariannovelist and screenwriter known for difficult and demanding novels, often labeled postmodern, with dystopian and melancholic themes. Several of his works, notably his novels Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, have been turned into feature films by Hungarian film director Béla Tarr.
Biography
Early life and education
Krasznahorkai was born in Gyula, Hungary, on 5 January 1954, to a middle-class Jewish family on his father's side. His father was György Krasznahorkai, a lawyer, and his mother, Júlia Pálinkás, was a social security administrator. After completing his secondary education in 1972 at the Erkel Ferenc high school where he specialized in Latin, he studied law from 1973 to 1976 at József Attila University and from 1976 to 1978 at the Eötvös Loránd University . After completing law studies, he sought a degree in Hungarian language and literature at ELTE. As a requirement of his degree work, he submitted a formal thesis on the work and experiences of Hungarian writer and journalist Sándor Márai after he fled Hungary in 1948 to escape the Communist regime that seized power after World War II. During his years as a university student in Budapest, Krasznahorkai worked at Gondolat Könyvkiadó, a publishing company. Krasznahorkai received his degree in 1983.
Career as writer
Since completing his university studies Krasznahorkai has supported himself as an independent author. When in 1985 his first major publication Satantango achieved success, he was immediately thrust into the forefront of Hungarian literary life. The book, a dystopian novel set in his native Hungary, is regarded as his most famous. It received a Best Translated Book Award in English in 2013. He travelled outside of Communist Hungaryfor the first time in 1987, spending a year in West Berlin as a recipient of a DAAD fellowship. Since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, he has lived in a variety of locations. In 1990, for the first time, he was able to spend a significant amount of time in East Asia. He drew upon his experiences in Mongolia and China in writing The Prisoner of Urga and Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens. He has returned many times to China. In 1993, his novel The Melancholy of Resistance received the German Bestenliste-Prize for the best literary work of the year. In 1996, he was a guest of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. While completing the novelWar and War, he travelled widely across Europe. The American poet Allen Ginsberg was of great assistance in completing the work; Krasznahorkai resided for some time in Ginsberg's New York apartment, and he described the poet's friendly advice as valuable in bringing the book to life. In 1996, 2000, and 2005 he spent six months in Kyoto. His contact with the aesthetics and literary theory of the Far East resulted in significant changes in his writing style and deployed themes. He returns often to both Germany and Hungary, but he has also spent varying lengths of time in several other countries, including the United States, Spain, Greece, and Japan, providing inspiration for his novel Seiobo There Below, which won the Best Translated Book Award in 2014. Beginning in 1985, the renowned director and the author's good friend Béla Tarr made films almost exclusively based on Krasznahorkai's works, including Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies. Krasznahorkai said the 2011 film The Turin Horse would be their last collaboration. Krasznahorkai has received international acclaim from critics. Susan Sontag described him as "the contemporary Hungarian master of apocalypse who inspires comparison with Gogol and Melville". W. G. Sebald remarked, "The universality of Krasznahorkai's vision rivals that of Gogol's Dead Souls and far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary writing." In 2015, he received the Man Booker International Prize, the first Hungarian author to be so awarded.
Personal life
After residing in Berlin, Germany for several years, where he was for six months S. Fischer Guest Professor at the Free University of Berlin, Krasznahorkai currently resides "as a recluse in the hills of Szentlászló" in Hungary. After divorcing his first wife, Anikó Pelyhe, whom he married in 1990, he married his second wife, Dóra Kopcsányi, a sinologist and graphic designer, in 1997. He has three children: Kata, Ágnes and Emma.
