A chronicler of human alienation and a writer who gives voice to experiences that defy expression in ordinary language – this is how Dr. Gábor Szabó, literary scholar at the University of Szeged (SZTE) and author of a monograph on the newly awarded Nobel laureate, characterizes László Krasznahorkai’s literary universe.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced last week that Hungarian writer and Kossuth Prize laureate László Krasznahorkai has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature. According to the official citation, he received the prize “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.”
The novelist was born in 1954 in Gyula, Hungary. After completing his secondary education, he studied law at József Attila University – the predecessor of the University of Szeged – between 1973 and 1976. He later shifted from law to literature, earning a degree in Hungarian language and cultural education from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 1983. His thesis explored Hungarian writer Sándor Márai’s years in exile. His first novel, Satantango, was published in 1985.
Since the fall of communism in Hungary, Krasznahorkai has lived not only in his home country but also in Germany, France, Italy, Greece, and the United States. His successive novels – The Melancholy of Resistance, War and War, A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East, Seiobo There Below, and Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming – have been translated into multiple languages.
In 2015, Krasznahorkai received the Man Booker International Prize – the predecessor of today’s International Booker Prize – and since then he has often been mentioned as a possible Nobel contender. His works are published by Magvető, the renowned Hungarian publishing house, and his most recent novel, Zsömle odavan, was released in 2024 (no English translation has been published yet).
In 2024, Dr. Gábor Szabó – literary scholar and associate professor at the Department of Hungarian Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Szeged – published his monograph Kilátás az utolsó hajóról, Krasznahorkai László prózavilága (View from the Last Ship: The Prose World of László Krasznahorkai). In its introduction, he writes:
“László Krasznahorkai is not only one of the most original and significant voices in contemporary Hungarian literature, but also a defining figure in world literature. Since the publication of his first short story in 1977, he has been constructing his oeuvre with solid consistency – essentially writing a single, continuous text.”
László Krasznahorkai (left) with writer Orsolya Bencsik and literary scholar Gábor Szabó at Grand Café in Szeged in 2017
Photo by László Jenei, editor-in-chief of the literary journal Műút
When asked what literary themes in Krasznahorkai’s work have resonated so deeply with the international literary community, Professor Szabó replied:
“The portrayal of anxiety as an existential condition – the expression of loss, estrangement in the world, and the universal sense that human beings are destined for disappearance and defeat. And of all this is accompanied by an awareness that we have no language truly adequate to articulate such experiences.”
Reflecting on where Krasznahorkai positions humanity in the modern world, Professor Szabó said the author envisions no place for humankind – or, more precisely, that the place he imagines is not meant for humankind.
Krasznahorkai’s outlook may strike some as paradoxical – deeply pessimistic about Eastern European realities, yet unwavering in his literary commitment to humanist ideals.
“I don’t think ‘humanist’ is the right word – and ‘unwavering’ even less so,” Professor Szabó pointed out. “In Krasznahorkai’s worldview, the value systems of classical humanism – those that placed humanity at the center of creation – have largely lost their relevance. His prose, I believe, explores, among other things, the erosion of humanity’s central position.”
Regarding the three years László Krasznahorkai spent at the University of Szeged, his biographer notes that the writer enrolled in the law program at József Attila University as a continuation of a family tradition – a path he later abandoned in favor of the humanities.
Original Hungarian article by Sándor Panek
László Krasznahorkai (right) with literary historian László Szörényi at a 1995 event at SZTE’s Móra Ferenc Dormitory
Photo: SZTE Móra Ferenc Dormitory
