Lajos Grendel: The Beginnings of Modernism in the Hungarian Fiction

The study deals with the beginnings of the Hungarian literature modernism. The modernism of Hungarian literature was born primarily in the works of novelists at the end of the 19th century. The creator of modern Hungarian fiction is considered István Petelei. His novels with balladistic wording and skipping narration established such a modern fiction technique in the Hungarian literature that finally ripened in the works of novelists in the 20th century. His contemporary, Gozsdu Elek, is the most intellectual writer of that period. His novels are characterised by powerful atmospheric repletion, and analysing argumentation is also not rare in them. The same can be said about his important novel, titled Fog. Sándor Bródy is the creator of naturalism in the Hungarian literature, his contemporary, Thury Zoltán also wrote naturalistic novels. Dániel Papp combines anecdotical prose with modernistic narration techniques. The most important novelist of the turn of the century, Károly Lovik, thanks mainly to his vision- and fearful novels, in which he combines the non-fictional elements with fantastic motives. Zoltán Ambrus was considered the writer of writers, because of he realised delicate, intellectual, French analytical realism with great style art. His novel titled Midas King is one of the most important milestones of the development of modern Hungarian novel. The study’s author considers the importance of this literature history period in the birth of the novel genre and its fast expansion.