representations of transylvania in the …upm.ro/cci/cci-04/lit/lit 04 64.pdf · century...

Iulian Boldea, Dumitru-Mircea Buda (Editors) CONVERGENT DISCOURSES. Exploring the Contexts of Communication Arhipelag XXI Press, Tîrgu Mureș, 2016 ISBN: 978-606-8624-17-4 Section: Literature

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REPRESENTATIONS OF TRANSYLVANIA IN THE 21ST-CENTURY BELLES-LETTRES

Júlia Anna Makkai

PhD Student, ”Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca

Abstract: The Hungarian book market has offered increasingly popular belles-lettres products in the

last years, which have played an important part in forming an opinion about the region by creating and

shaping an image, an identity, brand value. From a medial point of view, belles-lettres represent

important components of the given community, in our case, components of the Transylvanian Hungarian

and Hungarian society’s “authentic knowledge”. My research aims to gather those components of the

collective imagination that are related to Transylvania. I intend to point out how some elements of the

collective memory related to Transylvania are presented and “updated” in a text (György Dragomán:

Máglya. Magvető kiadó, Budapest, 2014). I will categorize these symbolic meanings related to the

region according to a specific methodology, since these categories are applicable in comparing more

novels: time structure, space structure, demographic data, text surface, resources, stereotypes and

myths about the Transylvanian past.

Keywords: Transylvania, representations, collective imagination, memory, symbolic meanings.

Representations of Transylvania in the 21st-Century Belles-Lettres

This research aims to gather those components of the collective imagination1 that are related

to Transylvania. I basically intend to categorize through a specific method the symbolic

meanings about the region which create and shape our collective experience about the area. I

will excerpt passages from György Dragomán’s novel Máglya (The Bone Fire), which contain

direct references to the region, and I will analyse the topoi and narrative stereotypes they are

embedded into.

The Hungarian book market has offered increasingly popular belles-lettres products in the

last years, which have played an important part in forming an opinion about the region by

creating and shaping an image, an identity, brand value. Hence, I have become interested in

what the books were teaching about the space. My intention is neither conducting an in-depth

stylistic analysis, nor demonstrating that Transylvania attracts a greater interest on the book

market. I shall analyse the Transylvania-image in the novel, through methods appropriate for

comparing more than one novels.

György Dragomán is a Transylvania-born writer and translator, who lives in Budapest, and

has received a József Attila-prize. He has lived in the communist Romania, in Târgu-Mureş

1 György Péter: Állatkert Kolozsváron – Képzelt Erdély. 7–8.


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until the age of 15. His family moved to Hungary in 1988. His second novel, A fehér király

(The White King) has already been translated to more than 30 languages worldwide.2 His novel

evokes Romania in the ‘80s, and it has a British movie adaptation too, first screened during the

70th Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).3 His third novel, Máglya (The Bone Fire)

has been named “the most anticipated novel of 2014” by the KönyvesBlog, an internet blog

intended for popularizing books and reading. In the novel, a 13-year old girl, Emma recalls the

period of the ’89 Romanian revolution, the regime change. She loses her parents to tragic

circumstances, she is raised by her grandmother, who practices quotidian magic and its rituals.

In the novel, the grandmother bears a strong magical code, she creates the mythical space

outlined in the novel. Dargomán’s novel is an eminent contemporary Hungarian example of the

magical realism, and it is also an outstanding representative prosaist of the contemporary

Hungarian literature’s flourishing historicist narrative. The author is a member of a writer

generation that presents the Central-Eastern European affliction through survival stories.4

In my paper, I have gathered the components objectifying the region through a specific

analysis model, components which are suitable for comparing more novels, e. g. time structure

(the time narrated, the time-space relationship), space structure (urban-rural character, values

and meanings of spaces, built environment, scenes characterized as being typically

Transylvanian, civilizational landscape components – economy, culture, politics, gastronomy),

demographic data (distribution of ethnic groups, social class, age and occupational categories),

text surface (language, style, linguistic particularities, layers and linguistic markers), layers of

knowledge, attitudes, resources, stereotypes and myths about the Transylvanian past.

The term representation, well-known from social psychology, and the researches about

collective imagination have been the launching points of shaping the model for

analysis.5Representations mean reality contents which interact with our perception about the

worlds. They make past events and fictional reality visible and comprehensible. In the

interrelationship between reality and its image, the image can take over reality’s place, it can

replace the latter or even create a “reality” that only exists in the representation.6

2György Dragomán’s site, source: http://gyorgydragoman.com/?page_id=5, downloaded: March 12, 2016. 3KönyvesBlog.hu, source:

http://konyves.blog.hu/2016/06/20/a_feher_kiraly_megmutatja_milyen_borzaszto_tud_lenni_a_valo_vilag,

downloaded: July 1, 2016. 4 Németh Zoltán: Mágikus realizmus a magyar irodalomban (Tér, idő, név és posztmodernizmus). 70. 5 Arjun Appadurai: A lokalitás teremtése. 3–32.; Bronislaw Baczko: Les Imaginaires sociaux. Mémoires et espoirs

collectifs; Charles Taylor: Modern Social Imaginaries; Cornelius Castoriardis: L’istitution imaginaire de la

société; Dominique Kalifa: Les bas-fonds. Histoire d’une imaginaire. Feischmit Margit: A magyar nacionalizmus

autenticitásdiskurzusainak szimbolikus térfoglalása Erdélyben. Hanna Pitkin: The Concept of Representation;

Katja Valaskivi – Johanna Sumilaia: Circulating Social Imagineries. Theoretical and Methodological Reflections.

Marc Augé: Non-lieux. Introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité; Saadi Lahlou – Jean-Claude Abric:

What are the „elements” of social representations?; Serge Moscovici: Theory of social representations. 6 Terestyéni Tamás: Szövegelméleti tézisek. (A reprezentáció, a kommunikatív cselekvés és az informativitás

szempontjai szövegek vizsgálatában.); Paul Ricoeur: Critique and Conviction.

http://gyorgydragoman.com/?page_id=5

http://konyves.blog.hu/2016/06/20/a_feher_kiraly_megmutatja_milyen_borzaszto_tud_lenni_a_valo_vilag


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These reality contents are artificial and constructed, created and distributed by the producers

of the culture industry through different mediums (press, folk art, belles-lettres, different forms

of visual contents: painting, film, photography, etc.).

The sources of the constructed contents are memory, heritage and identity, which is

explained as “broad present” or presentism by historians. It can manifest as focusing on an

area’s cultural heritage, in which the social practices of salvage and preservation become

prominent. In his book, Regimes of Historicity: Presentism and Experiences of Time, the

French historian François Hartog explains this phenomenon through the events of September

11., which happens and becomes visible simultaneously, it remembers itself through the

cameras.7

The significant role of the media in producing representations can be sensed in this

statement: the media, with the expansion of newspapers, radio and television participates in

producing events. The present acts as historical from the very moment of its formation, it

appears as past.8Tourism is a strong bearer of presentism: the entire world comes in reach,

through its “filter”, different slices of the past become interesting.9

Hartog assigns three keywords to the concept of broad present, which are also its criteria:

memory, which can be either intentional (oral history) or reconstructed (written history),

heritage (its salvage, focusing on its value, its fostering) and commemoration. These three point

at the fourth, or this fourth can be the basis of these three: identity.

The way we perceive past is shaped by several “presentational elements”, like advertising

mediums (booklets, boards etc.) intended for information and popularizing historical memories,

the explanations of guides or restoration and creation of monuments.10

Grasping, highlighting and showing different slices of the past is also specific to belles-

lettres, not only to media and tourism. My research presents belles-lettres as media product,

since from a medial point of view, it bears several relevant components of a community, in our

case, of the Transylvanian Hungarian and the Hungarian society’s “authentic knowledge”. I

will analyse components of Hartog’s keywords in György Dragomán’s novel, the ones that are

presented and “updated” in a text.

In the contemporary so-called Transylvania-novels of the historicist trend in the Hungarian

prose and the structures that recall historical moments or are based on these, the use of historical

scenery is common, and also, emphasizing the historical events of the past. Also, there is a

strand of prosaists which is formed of a writer generation that evokes the print of the recent

past, or a certain Central-Eastern European tribulation and survival stories generated by the fear

and vulnerability caused by the nature of dictatorships. A prominent representative is György

Dragomán, who has personal experience about the historical time and scenery of his works, the

fictional elements are built upon historical basis.

7 François Hartog: A történetiség rendjei – Prezentizmus és időtapasztalat. 20. 8 Hartog, 115. 9 Hartog, 114. 10 Hartog, 90.


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György Dragomán’s second novel, Máglya (The Bone Fire) was published in 2014 by

Magvető Publishing. The author illustrates the period of the Romanian regime change, the

events of the past, the losses of the individual, the development of identity, through the duality

of magic and reality. We follow a thirteen years old girl, Emma for a year: her parents die in a

car crash, so her grandmother takes her in. The action of the novel is set in a mythical space.

The child’s perspective (the events seen through the little girl’s eyes) and the magic that can be

sensed through the entire novel create beliefs that are different than the ordinary. The author

evokes the period of the revolution of 1989 in Romania through a narrative technique that

focuses on the past, specific to post-modern literature, and through magic realism. The attempt

to process the past as a community and to understand the historical grievances mark a

contemporary Central-Eastern European literary tendency.11 My aim is to identify the sources

of the constructed components of handling the past, and also, the representation contents created

by the space opposition between magic and reality. Hereinafter, I will examine the apparatus

and the genre features of magic realism that created the mythical Central European region with

focus on the components of the mythical space created by the author.

The mythicising function of magic realism

Facing history as a postmodern feature and narrating the past characterize the shift of

paradigm in social sciences, the most relevant product – besides the appearance of

historiographic metafiction – is the magic realistic novel. In contrast with modernism’s

cognition focused interests (epistemology), the postmodern writing concentrates on the

philosophical teachings about existence, the most general laws of existence (ontology). This

consists a basis for magic realistic novels’ self-reflexive metafictional writing, in which

language does not intend to primarily influence reality, but to magically transform it.

Magic realistic prose has played an important part in the Hungarian literature since the

1980s, its forerunner was Miklós Mészöly’s Volt egyszer egy Közép-Európa (Once There Was

a Central Europe), a collection of short stories presenting the Central European area. These

stories were the first to point out that the Hungarian magic realistic novels, in contrast to Gabriel

Garcia Marquez’s Latin American magic realistic novels’ specific irrational Latin American

sceneries, follow a unique topography: “an irrational space, set in the past, multi-cultural, mixed

cultural, and hybrid.”12

In magic realistic texts, one can often sense the intertwining of a magical, transcendental and

a realistic, rational space opposition. The essence of this is that the magical, supernatural space

is not only created, but it also acts as if it were part of the reality, and not an opposing dimension.

The purpose of using the supernatural element is a new, unique, mythicising way of interpreting

the world and discussing about the world. A specific thematic element is remembering and

11 Gyeskó Ágnes: Dragomán György – Máglya. Oktatási segédanyag. 12 „egy múltbeli, multikulturális, illetve kevert kultúrájú, hibrid, irracionális teret”. Németh, 70.


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recalling the past, often in order to relive ideological and social conflicts, which can be

interpreted as a way of processing traumas.13

Narratives which “Have become a separate trend among the genre of magic realism. The

Hungarian magic realistic proseoutside the territory of Hungary – often born in mixed culture

mediums – consists a specific strand of Hungarian speaking magic realism, due to its specific

notion of space and time. György Dragomán’s book is a representative of this trend.14

The speaking devices of the author and narrative techniques

In the writings of György Dragomán and other, also postmodern authors’ (like Andrea

Tompa’s) works, the reader can observe several autobiographic elements, especially knowing

data like the age, the life story of the main characters and the writers themselves. Just like

Andrea Tompa, Dragomán also left his native city, Târgu-Mureş at the age of fifteen and

relocated to Hungary in 1988. However, in the main themes of his novels „the biographic

approach is not the most accentuated. The methods of narration and evocation are primarily

based on the reactions of the characters; they reach the peak of their narrative effect through

these.”

Fragmented, raconteur storytelling characterizes his work, and also, metafiction, blurring the

lines between real and unreal, and historicity consolidates the stories (i.e. the historical themes).

The stories show a kind of Eastern European, Balkan polychrome of the multicultural

environment, a linguistic and cultural heterogeneity.

The specific voice the writer uses, characterized by strong body perception, and conveying

emotions and sensual experiences is compared to the voice of Péter Nádas in the Hungarian

literature, according to the critics.15 He goes into spectacular details to present through Emma’s

imagination as she climbs up a firewall without plaster:

“I reach up stretching, stroking the wall, seeking grip. As soon as I find it, I feel as if I kick

myself away from the ground, if I just let my fingers reach between the cracks, my body would

know the rest. My arms would pull, my calves would push, my toes would find the props, I

would cling against the wall, I would crawl up, flawlessly and swiftly as quicksilver.”16

The location and time of the act appear implicitly: the story happens after the revolution of

1989, in Romania, during the downfall of the dictatorship, supposedly in Târgu-Mureş, the

writer’s home town (or at least, in the beginning of the story). The author intentionally blurs

the specifics of space and time, however, not so much as to make it applicable to a general kind

13 Németh, 70–72. 14 „a közelmúlt történelmének közös, kelet-európainak mondható nyomorúságát és az ebből fakadó identitásokat,

vagy a diktatúrák természetrajzából adódóan a félelem és kiszolgáltatottság által generált túlélés-történeteket

konkretizáló tér-időben jelenítenek meg.” Németh, 70. 15 Kolozsi Orsolya: Az átmenet(ek) nehézségei (Dragomán György: Máglya című regényéről). 2015. 16 „Felnyújtózom, tapogatózva simogatom a falat, fogást keresek. Amikor találok, azt érzem, hogy csak fel kéne

rúgnom magam a földtől, csak neki kéne tapasszam magam a falnak, csak hagynom kéne, hogy az ujjaim

befurakodjanak a repedésekbe, és a testem már tudná is a többit. A karom húzna és a vádlim lökne, a lábujjaim

megtalálnák a támasztópontokat, a falhoz simulnék, felkúsznék rajta, folyékonyan és gyorsan, mint a higany”

(Dragomán György: Máglya.127.)


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of dictatorship. A very overt sign is the scene in which they burn the picture of the dictator, and

also, the words that refer to the region: motorina, szukk, pionír, málnás szukk, blokkház,

apartament, kalorifer, borkán, szeku etc. (diesel, soda, pioneer, raspberry soda, block,

apartment, radiator, jar, Securitate – Romanian loan words). The novel does not intend to

present the past and the change of regime with historical accuracy (instead of General Secretary,

he intentionally uses the word “general”). In spite of going into specifics of the world he

presents, while the story seems to stagnate in an empty dimensionless space, the death of the

dictator has already happened, but there is no new ruling system. The bedimming of the

situational elements of time and space is a device of creating the mythical space. The narrative

techniques like secrets, suggestions, the lyrical vagueness serve for creating magical

atmosphere. We become acquainted with the former life of the two main characters gradually.

The grandmother and the granddaughter are tied through a dead woman: Emma’s mother, the

grandmother’s only daughter. However, bit by bit, we find out why the relationship between

the grandmother and her daughter was interrupted, why they did not speak with each other and

why the grandmother never saw her granddaughter.17

“While we eat, suddenly she asks me if my mother has really never ever told me anything

about her. Not a word, ever? Not about her, not about Grandpa? The chestnut halts in my hand,

I can hardly speak, but eventually, I tell her “no”. It seems as if the wrinkles deepened on

Grandma’s face, she nods. I ask her what they fought about. As soon as I utter the words, I

know I shouldn’t have. (…) She tells me I have the right to know, and I would know, of course,

she would tell me eventually, but let’s not ruin the chestnuts.”18

The generalisation and abstraction of the situational elements of the novel are specific to the

relativizing prose poetics.19 The evoking narrative proceeds from the general to the direction of

the concrete, and synchronized with this, a tragic reference system from the general to the

concrete space and time also starts to operate.

Time

Besides processing the past, another main feature of magic realism is the search for identity

and self-determination, and in order to do so, the author uses remembering as a device. The

novel’s dilemma is the search for identity and the re-creation of identity by Emma and the

community. Hence, Dragomán’s novel is built on the narrative of remembering, thisis the main

driving force, the motive. In Francois Hartog’s terms, this can be considered an intentional

memory, a kind of oral history. The memories are partly personal, like Emma’s memories of

17 Kolozsi 2015. 18 „Ahogy eszünk, egyszer csak azt kérdezi, hogy tényleg soha, de soha nem mesélt őróla semmit nekem az

édesanyám? Egy szót se, soha? Róla se, és Nagyapáról se? Megáll a kezemben a gesztenye, nehezen szólalok meg,

de aztán mégis azt mondom, hogy nem. Nagymama arcán mintha elmélyülnek a ráncok, bólint. Megkérdezem,

min vesztek össze. Még ki se mondom, már tudom, hogy nem kellett volna. (...) Azt mondja, jogom van tudni, és

meg is fogom majd tudni, persze, el fogja majd nekem mondani, de nem most, ne rontsuk el a gesztenyeevést”

(Dragomán, 95.) 19 Németh, 71.


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her parents, and some are collective about the past of the city and the country. These two

registers can be separated, but they are strongly linked, since the family’s past, which follows

the main character through her life, is the metaphor of the collective remembrance.20

Remembrance starts from personal memories, often triggered by an object or a situation, but in

each case, the author associates it with a collective content. The stories are typically traumatic,

inherited or experienced. E.g. the athletics teacher, Mr. Pali’s personal memory of Emma’s

grandfather, who was not a snitch.

“(…) people are stupid, they didn’t know my grandpa well. He did, though, since they had

been 20, from the hippodrome (…). He was a straightforward man, he had only once been

disappointed in him, when my grandpa borrowed his old military map, the most detailed and

accurate map ever of the mountains, and he dared to die without giving it back. You can’t find

a map like this anymore, because communists hate maps, they intentionally drew them wrong.

(…) He never was a snitch. (…) My grandpa was a hero, he went through the war, captivity,

concentration camp, re-education camp, he withstood everything, including the fact that they

wanted to make him a scavenger, despite being a surgeon.”21

The memory of the classmate, Krisztina, of the fusillade that killed her sister:

“They are standing there, clinging to each other, everyone is running around them, but they

can’t move, they just hold each other, when she suddenly feels that Réka is pulled away from

her arms, something pulls her, lifts her and throws her away, and in the next second, Réka

already lies on the cobblestone, her coat is full of blood, her face is full of blood, her hair is full

of blood, and she is standing above her sister, grabbing her wrist with two hands, pulling and

jerking her, she tries to lift her, she tries to pull her up, come on, move, stand up, live, but all in

vain, Réka does not move.”22

In order to evoke memories, the author uses magic motifs, like the repeated appearance of

ants, a motif that symbolizes putting the pieces together, correcting something. The way the

ants put the torn leaf together, Emma also tries to piece the details of her past together. The

grandmother fights forgetting with images drawn in the flour.

20 Gyeskó 2015. 21 „(...) az emberek hülyék, nem ismerték rendesen nagyapámat. Ő viszont ismerte, húszéves kora óta, még a

lovardából (...). Egyenes ember volt mindig, csak egy dologban csalódott benne az életben, abban, hogy nagyapám

elkérte tőle a régi katonai térképet, aminél részletesebb meg pontosabb soha nem készült ezekről a hegyekről, és

képes volt úgy meghalni, hogy nem adta vissza. Ilyen térképet nem lehet sehol szerezni, mert a kommunisták, azok

utálják a térképeket, direkt félrerajzolták az összeset. (...) Soha nem volt besúgó. (...) A nagyapám egy hős volt,

végig csinálta a háborút, a hadifogságot, a munkatábort, az átnevelőtábort, azt, hogy sebész létére utcaseprőt

akartak csinálni belőle, mindent kibírt (...)” (Dragomán, 108.) 22 „Állnak és egymásba kapaszkodnak, mindenki rohan körülöttük, de ők nem tudnak megmozdulni, szorítják és

ölelik egymást, és akkor egyszer csak azt érzi, hogy Rékát hirtelen kirántja a karjából valami, kirántja, felemeli,

elhajítja, és a következő pillanatban Réka már ott fekszik a kockaköveken, tiszta vér a füsskabátja, tiszta vér az

arca, tiszta vér a haja, ő ott áll a testvére fölött, két kézzel a két csuklóját fogja, húzza, rángatja, fel akarja emelni,

fel akarja rántani a földről, hogy jöjjön, keljen fel, álljon fel, éljen, de hiába, Réka nem mozdul (...).” (Dragomán,

374.)


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“She charges the board, her ring clicks on the wooden brim under the table, and a wave runs

through the flour, the faces disappear, the surface is flat again. Grandma tells me that for my

information, forgetting is hard. I might think that I would never forget anything, that I would

always remember everything, but it wouldn’t be so. One can forget even the most important

things, the best things, the worst things, the greatest pain and the greatest happiness, everything,

everything. She looks into my eyes and tells me that forgetting is like a curse that burdens

everybody, even me, even her, but hers is heavier now.”23

Two metaphors of remembrance as interpreting self-determination are: looking for the

origins and the purification of the individual, which also serve the mythic atmosphere. the

search for the origins24 manifests itself by the fact that Emma’s every skill is inherited from her

parents. In drawing class, she remembers her father, whom she often watched painting: “In my

old school, I never managed to draw cubes and apples and walnuts. (…) I remember father as

he would work with the brush and the scraper blade, and I would watch him a lot working.”25

In the library, the librarian compares her to her mother: “She tells me that she knows who I am,

just as if she was looking at my mother, just as if my mother was standing in front of her, but

of course, I also look like me father too.”26 The metaphor of purification and liberation27 is also

present, through the main character’s speaking out as a narrative technique.

For the religious person, neither space nor time are homogenous: there are sacred periods,

the periods of holidays, and there are profane time intervals. Rites help us transition from one

to another. Sacred time is saturated with existence, real time, when something really “happens”:

“by its very nature sacred time is reversible in the sense that properly speaking it is a primordial

mythical time made present.”28 The religious person’s relationship to time is defined by their

longing for existence, they flee the present, which is but a momentary transition: the religious

man “refuses to live solely in what, in modem terms, is called the historical present; he attempts

to regain a sacred time that, from one point of view, can be homologized to eternity.”29

The sacred time is the time of the origin, the man strives to get in its closeness. He attempts

to be rejuvenated through returning to the original time: “Since the sacred and strong time is

23 „Meglöki a deszkát, a gyűrűje nekikoppan az asztal szélén átnyúló alsó faperemnek, hullám fut végig tőle a

liszten, az arcok eltűnnek, a liszt megint sima. Nagymama azt mondja, tudjam meg, hogy felejteni könnyű. Lehet,

hogy azt hiszem, hogy én soha semmit se fogok elfelejteni, mindig és mindenre emlékezni fogok, de nem így lesz.

Még a legfontosabb dolgokat is el lehet felejteni, a legjobb dolgokat és a legrosszabb dolgokat, a legnagyobb

fájdalmat és a legnagyobb örömöt, mindent, mindent. A szemembe néz, azt mondja, a felejtés olyan, mint egy

átok, amelyik ott ül mindenkinek a vállán, az enyémen is, az övén is, csak az övén már sokkal súlyosabban”

(Dragomán, 77.) 24 Kolozsi 2015. 25 „A régi iskolámban nem sikerült soha lerajzolni a kockákat meg az almákat meg a diókat. (...) Apa jut eszembe,

ahogy az ecsettel és a vakarókéssel dolgozott, hogy milyen sokat néztem munka közben (...)” (Dragomán, 159.) 26 „(...) azt mondja, tudja, ki vagyok, ahogy meglátott, rögtön tudta, ezer közül is megismerne, pont mintha anyámat

látná, pont mintha ő állna előtte, és persze apámra is hasonlítok (...)” (Dragomán, 173.) 27 Kolozsi 2015. 28 Mircea Eliade: The Sacred and the Profane. The Nature of Religion. 68. 29 Eliade, 71.


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the time of origins, the stupendous instant in which a reality was created, was for the first time

fully manifested, man will seek periodically to return to that original time. This ritual

reactualizing of the illud tempus in which the first epiphany of a reality occurred is the basis

for all sacred calendars; the festival is not merely the commemoration of a mythical (and hence

religious) event; it reactualizes the event.”30

The sweeping character of the experiences signal the constant formation of Emma’s identity

and freedom.31 The teachers’ opinions about freedom and responsibility are expressed in the art

teacher’s monologue:

“He personally risked his life to stop stupid people from giving everyone stupid orders, but

if we wanted to be stupid intentionally, then just go for it. Then we deserve to have them sit on

our necks again, and if the old system returns, it would be on us. It would be our own

fault.”32

Krisztina’s story, the first love:

“I remember Iván’s face, the way he smiled when Krisztina pulled him in the water, I knew

he would never be mine. So be it. Let him be Krisztina’s.”33 Péter: “I’m thinking about Péter

while doing the dishes, I can’t not think about him. (…) He tells me that first love is always

painful. Painful and hard, but that’s what makes it beautiful. He asks me, is this a serious boy?

Maybe, I tell him nodding.”34

The experience of menstruation:

“In the dawn, Grandma catches me trying to clean the sheet and my sleeping gown. The

sheet is bloody, the sleeping gown is bloody. I bled on them. I am very ashamed. I scrub them

with the washing soap in vain, I thrash them against the side of the bathing tub in vain, the

blood won’t come out. (…) It’s not deep red anymore, but it’s become larges, like a red bird

with spread wings. (…) After breakfast, Grandma tells me she’s proud of me, because I’ve

become a big girl.”35

Emma needs strong experiences to make her mature.

30 Eliade, 81. 31 Malek Ízisz: A múlt fogságában – Dragomán György: Máglya. 32 „Ő személy szerint azért kockáztatta az életét, hogy ne hülyék parancsoljanak mindenkinek hülyeségeket, de ha

mi magunktól akarunk hülyék lenni, akkor úgy kell nekünk. Akkor megérdemeljük majd, hogy megint a

nyakunkba üljenek, és ha megint az lesz itt, ami régen volt, azt magunknak köszönhetjük. A mi hibánk lesz”

(Dragomán, 368.) 33 „Iván arca jut eszembe, ahogy mosolygott, amikor Krisztina berántotta a vízbe, tudom, hogy soha nem lesz az

enyém. Akkor nem is kell. Legyen a Krisztináé” (Dragomán, 270.) 34 Péter: „Mosogatás közben Péterre gondolok, nem tudok nem rá gondolni. (...) Azt mondja, tudjam meg, az igazi

szerelem, az mindig fájdalmas. Fájdalmas is, nehéz is, de pont attól szép. Azt kérdezi, ez most egy komolyabb fiú?

Lehet, mondom, bólintok (...)” (Dragomán, 285.) 35 „Nagymama rajtakap hajnalban, amikor megpróbálom kimosni a lepedőt és a hálóingemet. A hálóing véres,a

lepedő is véres. Én véreztem össze. Nagyon szégyellem. Hiába dörzsölöm mosószappannal, hiába csapkodom a

kád széléhez, a vérfolt nem jön ki. (...) Már nem olyan mélyvörös, de nagyobb lett, olyan, mint egy kiterjesztett

szárnyú piros madár. (...) Reggeli után Nagymama azt mondja, büszke rám, hogy már nagylány vagyok (...)”

(Dragomán, 111.)


576

Space

Mythical space is basically organized by two systems: the transcendental belief system and

the child’s perspective, through which the author shows the events of the past and the strand of

events in the novel.

The essence of magic realism is the presence of the transcendental belief system, which is

created by the opposition of the sacred and the profane space. Mircea Eliade analyses the nature

of the sacred and the profane space in his work The Sacred and the Profane, and also, the

mythicising power of the opposition of these two existential situations. For the non-religious

man, every space is homogeneous, in contrast, the saint, sacred space is nonhomogeneous, it

has additional meanings. Eliade gives the example of the threshold of the church and the house:

the door leading into the church interrupts the continuity of space, the upward threshold

between the two locations indicates the gap between profane and religious, these two

existences, and the passing of the frontier is associated with rituals. Every sacred space is related

to a hierophany (something becoming sacred, the manifestation of the sacred). The sacred enters

the profane existence, it cracks the profane space, and hence, by making its “ceiling” open, it

consecrates it. The sanctity of the space is usually signalled: “(…) the sign, fraught with

religious meaning, introduces an absolute element and puts an end to relativity and confusion.

Something that does not belong to this world has manifested itself apodictically and in so doing

has indicated an orientation or determined a course of conduct.”36

In Dragomán’s story, the magical code is represented by the Grandmother, whose person is

defined solely bysuperstitions and beliefs. The Grandmother sees the dead, she bodes, she

makes a golem, she senses and causes things opposing the everyday reality. “I look up on his

face, on Grandma’s finger marks. His face is scary, I want to let go of his arm, but I don’t dare.

(…) This is just a clay man; his name is Bone-of-the-Earth. He will be our servant, he will live

in the wood shed, we summoned him to protect us.”37 According to the critics, this makes her

anincreasingly unilateral character. We know nothing of the Grandmother’s social embedding,

about her relationships besides her granddaughter, she appears as being outside of society. By

the end of the novel we find out that she “snitched” in the past regime. These rituals usually

serve remembrance on one hand, and on the other, they try to find some kind of solution or

answer for the questions. The beliefs and superstitions are inherited from the ancient and

folkloric Hungarian culture, they are relics, with a function to express identity in many 20th-

century and contemporary literary products.38 The existence of magical elements is not

questioned or explained, just accepted naturally by the characters.

36 Eliade, 27. 37 „Felnézek az arcára, Nagymama ujjainak a nyomára. Az arc félelmetes, el akarom engedni a karját, de nem

merem. (...) Ez csak egy agyagember, úgy hívják, Földcsontja. A szolgánk lesz,a fáskamrában fog lakni, azért

hívtuk, hogy vigyázzon ránk” (Dragomán, 335.) 38 Keszeg Vilmos: Hiedelmek, narrativumok, strategiak; Czegenyi Dora Andrea: Az „arnyek nelkuli” hiedelem.

Fogalomtorteneti attekintes. 1–45.


577

The aim of the religious man is to live in the sacred. This need leads him to form orientation

techniques that basically serve the creation of the sacred space.39 To the religious man, the

habitat is a happening saturated with existence, guaranteed by the deities: “(…) habitation

always undergoes a process of sanctification, because it constitutes an imago mundi and the

world is a divine creation.”40

The initiation, the death, the mythical ecstasy, absolute knowledge and belief symbolize the

transition from one existence to the other. Hence, we can interpret the novel as an initiation

story, the function of the rites can be initiation into real life. E.g. Grandmother teaches various

things to Emma to prepare her to get along on her own after Grandmother passes away. Emma

often notes that she does something the same way her Grandmother used to do it, as she

gradually learns the rules of the adult world:

“I know everything Grandma used to know, I know everything about everybody, or at least

I can lie to myself that I do. I know that if I want, I could just pull the hairpin out of my hair

and shove it through my palm, then I can put my palm on my heart and wish for Diszkosz

Gyurka’s heart to stop. I know that if I want (…) them all to fall to their knees and apologize

for what they’ve done.”41

The elements of the space are incomplete, the description of the environment is harsh:

“The train passes by a huge plant, in the background, a block is built, among the buildings,

the cranes still stand, and behind the windows, as if huge fires were burning. Grandma looks

out, she says this is the new iron foundry block. (…) It’s cold outside, with only one streetlamp

lit, where the overpass goes between the rails. It’s hard to pull the suitcase up on the slippery

iron stairs, Grandma helps me. As we arrive on the top, I look through the wailing. The train

station is huge, goods trains are station on fifteen or more tracks. (…) We pass through the

station, on the giant clock above the exit, the hands are missing, before exiting, I peek on my

new watch, it’s midnight in seven minutes.”42

The emphasis is on the actions, reactions of the characters:

“(…) She puts her arms around me, I want to say I’m not sleepy, but before I could speak, I

feel that I actually am, I shut my eyes, I put my head on Grandma’s nutria fur collar, my nostrils

39 Eliade, 27. 40 Eliade, 52. 41 „Tudok mindent, amit Nagymama tudott, tudok mindent mindenkiről, vagy legalábbis azt tudom hazudni

magamnak. Tudom, hogy ha akarom, kikaphatom a hajtűt a hajaból, és átdöfhetem a tenyeremet, és a tenyerem

aztán a szívemre szoríthatom, és azt kívánhatom, hogy Diszkosz Gyurka szíve álljon meg. Tudom, hogy ha

akarom, (...) hogy mind térdre rogyjanak és úgy kérjenek bocsánatot azért, amit tesznek” (Dragomán, 442.) 42 „A vonat egy nagy gyártelep mellett megy el, mögötte a dombon épülő blokknegyed, a blokkok között még ott

állnak a toronydaruk, de az ablakok mögött mintha nagy tüzek lobognának. Nagymama kinéz, azt mondja, ez az

új vasgyári negyed (...). Hideg van, a peronon csak egy lámpa ég, ahol a felüljáró átvezet a sínek között. A bőröndöt

nehéz felcipelni a síkos vaslépcsőn, Nagymama segít. Ahogy felérünk, átnézek a rácsokon. Az állomás nagyon

nagy, tizenöt vagy még annál is több vágányon állnak rajta a tehervonatok. (...) Átmegyünk a pályaudvar épületén,

a kijárat fölött a nagy óráról hiányoznak a mutatók, mielőtt kilépünk, az új órámra nézek, látom, hogy hét perc

múlva lesz éjfél” (Dragomán, 37.)


578

are filled with the fur’s smell. Mother’s old coat pops into my head, which she has never worn,

I remember a word: naphthalene. I go to sleep with this word on my tongue.”43

The presence of the motifs, which form a motif network in the novel, allows the creation of

the magical space. The recurrent ants, flour, drawing, running, trees, foxes and the bonfire are

important metaphors of the text. The fox, appearing on the cover, has a central role in the novel,

the foxes, released from their cages, symbolize people freed from dictatorship.

Another device of mythicising is the child narrator, whose bitter experience, the loss of her

parents defines the entire rest of the novel, everything is correlated to this, even the time of the

story is measured compared to this. The child that gradually marvels on the world and its

meretriciousness, symbolizes a writer generation that lived through the everyday life during the

dictatorship in the 1970s and ‘80s as children in Eastern Europe.

The motifs that appear in the novel are interpreted by the child through her own world view,

as a constant absence of the parents, the roles determined to replace them, the familiar, social

and collective system lies, physical aggression, vulnerability, the fear it causes and also,

interdependence, or even resignation.

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