György Spiró
György (George) Spiró (born 4 April 1946 in Budapest) is a dramatist, novelist and essayist who has emerged as one of post-war Hungary's most prominent literary figures. He is a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts.
Life
The son of an engineer from Miskolc in eastern Hungary, he graduated in Hungarian and Slavic literature from the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 1970, and completed additional studies in journalism and sociology. His earlier career was spent in radio journalism. More recently, in addition to his writing, he has been employed as associate professor at the Department of World Literature and currently at the Institute of Art Theory and Media Studies at ELTE.
His plays have won numerous awards, including several for best Hungarian drama of the year. A few of them are available in English translation. The best known one is Csirkefej (Chickenhead, 1986), an earthy and bitter drama of a young delinquent's disillusionment at the longed-for reunion with his drunken father. Dramatic Exchange said it was "widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years".[citation needed]
His avant-garde style, depicting coarse language and characters outside the pale of respectability, often dismayed more traditional Hungarian critics.[citation needed]
His book, Az Ikszek (The X-s), which appeared in 1981, is a historical novel about the National Theatre of Poland in the first years of the 19th century, with Wojciech Bogusławski as the main character. The novel is about the fight of the artists against censorship.
In 2005, he published an 800-page novel, Fogság (Captivity). Set in the Roman Empire in the time of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, it follows the experiences of a Jewish wanderer named Uri. Spiró's earlier works eschewed Jewish themes, but in this work he returns to his ancestral roots.
In 2007, he published the rewritten Messiások (Messiahs), another historical novel, for which he was awarded the Angelus Award.[1]
The hugely successful Tavaszi Tárlat (Spring Exhibition, 2010) describes the early days of the Kádár regime.[citation needed]
Selected bibliography
Novels
- Kerengő (1974)
- Az Ikszek (1981)
- A Jövevény (1990)
- A Jégmadár (2001)
- Fogság (2005). Captivity, trans. Tim Wilkinson (2015)
- Messiások (2007)
- Feleségverseny (2009)
- Tavaszi Tárlat (2010)
- Diavolina (2015)
- Kőbéka. Mesély (2017)
Plays
- 1982 – A békecsászár (Hannibál; Balassi Menyhárt; Kőszegők; Káró király; A békecsászár)
- 1987 – Csirkefej (Jeruzsálem pusztulása; Az imposztor; A kert; Esti műsor; Csirkefej)
- 1997 – Mohózat (Ahogy tesszük; Legújabb Zrínyiász; Árpádház; Dobardan; Vircsaft; Kvartett)
- 2002 – Honderű (Honderű, Fogadó a Nagy Kátyúhoz, Szappanopera, Elsötétítés)
Poetry
- História (1977)
References
- ^ "Angelus 2010". Archived from the original on 2017-12-26. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
External links
- An English translation of the play Chickenhead
- Home page with reviews of the novel Fogság, in Hungarian Archived 2008-12-29 at the Wayback Machine
- v
- t
- e
- Old Hungarian script
- Establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany
- Urgesta
- Funeral Sermon and Prayer
- Anonymus (notary of Béla III)
- Gesta Hungarorum
- Ákos (chronicler)
- Simon of Kéza
- Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum
- Lamentations of Mary
- Mór Jókai
- Kálmán Mikszáth
- Elek Benedek
- Zoltán Ambrus
- Sándor Bródy
- Géza Gárdonyi
- Ferenc Herczeg
- Ignotus
- Miklós Bánffy
- Endre Ady
- Miksa Fenyő
- Ferenc Molnár
- Gyula Krúdy
- Dezső Szabó
- Zsigmond Móricz
- Ferenc Móra
- Menyhért Lengyel
- Margit Kaffka
- Lajos Nagy
- Gyula Juhász
- Mihály Babits
- Károly Kós
- Géza Gyóni
- Béla Balázs
- Árpád Tóth
- Géza Csáth
- Dezső Kosztolányi
- Lajos Kassák
- Frigyes Karinthy
- Lajos Áprily
- Milán Füst
- József Nyírő
- Sándor Reményik
- Lajos Zilahy
- Tibor Déry
- Béla Hamvas
- Sándor Szathmári
- Áron Tamási
- János Kodolányi
- István Fekete
- Lőrinc Szabó
- Sándor Márai
- László Németh
- Antal Szerb
- Gyula Illyés
- Jolán Földes
- Sándor Török
- Jenő Rejtő
- Attila József
- Albert Wass
- Miklós Szentkuthy
- Mária Szepes
- Géza Képes
- Miklós Radnóti
- István Örkény
- Géza Ottlik
- László Kálnoky
- Sándor Weöres
- Iván Mándy
- Ferenc Karinthy
- János Pilinszky
- Ágnes Nemes Nagy
- László Nagy
- Éva Janikovszky
- Péter Zsoldos
- Ervin Lázár
- Gáspár Nagy