With this praise of melancholy, László F. Földényi goes back 40 years ago to the main subject of his life and comes once again a bit closer to this untimely atmosphere. In a fine net of essays, the author wanders through paintings, films and literature and entices out of them a longing which sweeps everything away through its tenderness. In doing so the author shows us the melancholy in all its bewitching cultural richness as the unsecure shadow of this life always depicted as glorious and pleasure seeking. But a shadow which is never synonymous of the reconciling faith of the next world.
Awards
Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding 2020Sample translation
Hungarian original available
László F. Földényi, born in 1952 in Debrecen, is a Hungarian art theorist, literature specialist and essayist. He holds a chair for art theory at the Academy for Theater and Film in Budapest. He has edited the complete works of Heinrich von Kleist in Hungarian. Since 2009 he is a member of the German academy for language and poetry.
