Guest of the ilb 2003
Lajos Parti Nagy was born in Szeksz�rd, Hungary in
1953. His father was an officer, so he grew up in various
Hungarian cities. Although Parti Nagy studied Literature and
History at the Pedagogical College in P�cs, he has never
taught. In the 70�s and 80�s he lived in P�cs, where he
worked as a librarian and from 1979 to 1986 as an editor for the
literary magazine �Jelenkor�. Since 1986 he has lived in Budapest,
where he works as a freelance writer and literary translator. He
has translated works by Werner Schwab and Thomas Bernhard into
Hungarian. In the early 90�s he wrote articles for the literary
magazine 'Magyar Napl�'. Until this time, his written output
was solely poetic; he now also writes stories, novels, radio plays and
dramas. In 1993 theatre critics awarded his first theatre piece
'Ibus�r' the title of 'Best Hungarian Drama'. Like
'Mauz�leum' (1994) and his drama translations and adaptations, this
piece is also frequently performed at Hungarian and international
theatres.
Characteristic of Parti Nagy�s writing is his obsessive way of
dealing with colloquial Hungarian. Repetitions that initially
"occur" unconsciously, work in the course of the text to make the
material more clear. For Parti Nagy the colloquial language is a
living reservoir and, rather than an impoverishment of the Hungarian
language, he sees a "baroque turmoil" at work. In 1999 'Europink'
a book of poetry written in four languages (including German)
appeared. From 2001 to 2002 he lived in Berlin as a DAAD
scholarship holder. His novel 'H�s�m tere' (2000; t: Hero's
Square), an allegorical story involving animals and written in the
style of a satire by Swift, is told by a narrator and a consciousness
independent of his person, which appears as the narrator�s "hero".
This consciousness is imprisoned by his new neighbours, a "party of
pigeons" formed for the sake of taking over power in the city.
Parti Nagy has written a satirical finale on dictatorships of all
colours.
� international literature festival berlin | 
