Death and Melody: A Psychobiography of Rezső Seress, Composer of "Gloomy Sunday".

Abstract

Rezső Seress (1899-1968), the composer of the world-famous song "Gloomy Sunday," whose life ended in suicide, is analyzed using a psychobiographical approach. The research question is how can suicide be read through Seress's self-narrations, embedded in the Hungarian cultural, social, and historical context? To answer this question, we integrate Kézdi's theory of the negative code, Wallerstein's world-systems theory, and McAdams's narrative identity theory, linking language, structure, and the self. We analyzed nine song lyrics: counted explicit and narrowly defined implicit negations, calculated negation density (per 100 words), and coded narrative tone and plot, key life events, and agency/communion cues. Throughout the analysis, interpretation is hermeneutic and context-sensitive, with numbers serving as guides. Peaks in negation density appear in the songs "Nobody Has Ever Loved Me" (1930) and especially, "Just Drink, Drink" (1940), aligning with personal and historical crises. Agency markers are minimal or defensive, while communion is consistently framed as loss. No redemptive arc is identifiable; the life story follows a contamination sequence beginning in adversity. These patterns motivate the introduction of the tragic semiperipheral self (TSS) as a culturally and structurally situated narrative type.