Literature of Absence

Literature of Absence explores the literary representations of wartime atrocities and the Holocaust in Hungary from 1945 through the late 1950s. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, survivor accounts, diverse in genre, perspective, and literary value, came to light as testimonies, novels and short stories, anthologies, and stage plays. These accounts appeared predominantly during the first three postwar years but diminished in frequency thereafter. Their absence reinforced a preconception that persists today, that there was a general silence about the Holocaust in postwar Hungary.

Tamás Kisantal resolves this absence with a critical examination of the first survivor testimonies, humor in early Holocaust writings, the notion of the "martyr writer," and the challenges of addressing and representing Hungarian responsibility—not only that of former politicians and leaders but also of ordinary people. Ultimately, Literature of Absence examines how the recent past was represented within the framework of antifascist literature and how certain works attempted to transcend these generic and ideological constraints in order to articulate their own approach to the Hungarian Holocaust.