Entering the Madness of Others

Follia e apocalisse di Melville e Lowry nel neomodernismo di Krasznahorkai

Abstract

This article explores an interpretive hypothesis extracted from the novella Aprómunka egy palotáért (Spadework for a Palace, 2018) by the Hungarian writer and 2025 Nobel laureate László Krasznahorkai, which helps to classify him within the category of neomodernism. The premise of this New York-set text is its debt to Melville, a master among the precursors of modernism, though not always understood by modernist writers. But the reception of Melville  - through stylistic influences, quotations, and obsessions with the work and, above all, the life of the author of Moby-Dick -  intersects with another author, one who can be defined as a late modernist: Malcolm Lowry, who was also obsessed with Melville, as is evident in works such as Lunar Caustic, another point of comparison in this article. Considering both the “Melville Revival” and the “Melville Effect” in relation to Krasznahorkai’s most significant novels, two topics will emerge from the proposed canon and the Hungarian author’s poetics: madness and the apocalypse.