Fatefulness and falling into sin in István Szilágyi’s novel KŐ HULL APADÓ KÚTBA («A stone drops in a dwindling well»)

Abstract

The study analyses István Szilágyi’s widely known novel Kő hull apadó kútba («A Stone Drops in a Dwindling Well») from the viewpont of fatefulness and falling into sin. The novel is an outstanding work in the 20th century hungarian literature, written by István Szilágyi who lives in the present Romania, Transylvania. The main character, Ilka Szendy faces with ethical dilemmas which can be examined from newer trends of cultural studies such as xenology. This study focuses on the following questions: how does the social system and compunction distort the personality? How does Ilka Szendy become a foreigner in the milieu in which she grown up? What kind of poetical pecularities, motifs, time and place usage represents the girl’s fate in the 20th century by the author? In the beginning of the study I explain the process how the literary historians realised the significance of this novel. This is an important issue because the history of hungarian literature and the history of hungarian literature across Hungary’s border developed differently in the 20th century – different experiences and poetical pecularities can be found in a novel. There are three different reading and canonizing strategies which outlined from the criticisms and studies: in the case of the first one, the emphasize was on the novel’s social aspects. The second one focused on the poetical aspect and structure. In the 2000s occurred the newest strategy which analyses the novel from the viewpoint of cultural studies. In this study I apply this third strategy. With the help of close reading I try to attempt connecting the own body’s alienation and the multiplication of the main character’s (Ilka Szendy) personality with the traumas that she experienced at her young age. Several experiences preceded the fall into sin (murdering), but the narrator tells them only later in the novel. As a reader we can explore the most effectively the fall into sin and the fulfillment of destiny through the context of Ilka Szendy’s experiences, deeds, thoughts, motifs, metaphors and the secrets that lead us into the family’s past. In the end of the study I connect Ilka Szendy’s destiny with her family’s past. The girl died beceause she rode for the fall. She knew that she could never be relesead from her guilt, she could receive absolution only by death.