''The Melancholy of Resistance'' ( hu, Az ellenállás melankóliája) is a 1989 novel by the Hungarian writer

László Krasznahorkai László Krasznahorkai (; born 5 January 1954) is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter known for difficult and demanding novels, often labeled postmodern, with dystopian and melancholic themes. Several of his works, including his novels '' ...

. The narrative is set in a restless town where a mysterious circus, which exhibits a whale and nothing else, contributes to an apocalyptic atmosphere. Krasznahorkai adapted the novel into a screenplay for the 2000 film ''

Werckmeister Harmonies ''Werckmeister Harmonies'' (; hu, Werckmeister harmóniák) is a 2000 Hungarian drama film directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, based on the 1989 novel ''The Melancholy of Resistance'' by László Krasznahorkai. Shot in black-and-white a ...

'', directed by

Béla Tarr Béla Tarr (born 21 July 1955) is a Hungarian filmmaker. Debuting with the film '' Family Nest'' (1977), Tarr began his directorial career with a brief period of what he refers to as "social cinema", aimed at telling everyday stories about ordi ...

Reception

James Wood of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' wrote in 2011: "''The Melancholy of Resistance'' is a comedy of apocalypse, a book about a God that not only failed but didn't even turn up for the exam. Less manic, less entrapped than ''War and War'', it has elements of a traditional

social novel The social novel, also known as the social problem (or social protest) novel, is a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". Mor ...

." Wood continued: "''The Melancholy of Resistance'' is a demanding book, and a pessimistic one, too, since it seems to take repeated ironic shots at the possibility of revolution. ... The pleasure of the book, and a kind of resistance, as well, flows from its extraordinary, stretched, self-recoiling sentences, which are marvels of a loosely punctuated stream of consciousness."

References

1989 novels Hungarian novels Hungarian novels adapted into films Postmodern novels Works by László Krasznahorkai Magvető books {{1980s-novel-stub

Reception

See also

References