The concept of strangeness in Sándor Márai's novel Az idegenek from the cultural studies perspective
Abstract
Hungarian society in the first decades of the 20th century and the relation between Hungarian nation and other European nations. The presentation tries to find an answer to the question who, according to Márai, is the stranger and what is his role (if there is any).
I confront Márai's views with the different concepts of strangeness that can be found in the contemporary philosophical and literary theories (Levinas, Buber, Kristeva, Waldenfels). Furthermore, I study the issues that are related to the notion of strangeness, namely the mythologization of culture, its conditioning in the world of changing values as well as the propagated social relations and cultural models.
The analysis is carried out in the perspective of cultural studies and cultural literary theory.