György (George) Spiró (born 4 April 1946 in
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
) is a dramatist, novelist and essayist who has emerged as one of post-war
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
's most prominent literary figures. He is a member of the
Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts The Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts (, ) was created in 1992 as an academy associated yet independent from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is intended to be the national academy of artists and writers, who could be elected to the HAS ...
.
Life
The son of an engineer from
Miskolc
Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities and towns in Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, ...
in eastern Hungary, he graduated in Hungarian and Slavic literature from the
Eötvös Loránd University
Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...
(ELTE) in 1970, and completed additional studies in journalism and sociology. His earlier career was spent in
radio journalism
Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected to ...
. More recently, in addition to his writing, he has been employed as associate professor at the Department of World Literature and currently at the Institute of Art Theory and Media Studies at ELTE.
His plays have won numerous awards, including several for best Hungarian drama of the year. A few of them are available in English translation. The best known one is ''Csirkefej'' (''
Chickenhead,'' 1986), an earthy and bitter drama of a young delinquent's disillusionment at the longed-for reunion with his drunken father. ''Dramatic Exchange'' said it was "widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years".
His
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
style, depicting coarse language and characters outside the pale of respectability, often dismayed more traditional Hungarian critics.
His book, ''Az Ikszek'' (''The X-s''), which appeared in 1981, is a historical novel about the
National Theatre of Poland in the first years of the 19th century, with
Wojciech Bogusławski
Wojciech Romuald Bogusławski (9 April 1757 – 23 July 1829) was a Polish actor, theater director and playwright of the Polish Enlightenment. He was the director of the National Theatre, Warsaw, (''Teatr Narodowy''), during three distinct pe ...
as the main character. The novel is about the fight of the artists against censorship.
In 2005, he published an 800-page novel, ''Fogság'' (''Captivity''). Set in the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
in the time of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, it follows the experiences of a Jewish wanderer named Uri. Spiró's earlier works eschewed Jewish themes, but in this work he returns to his ancestral roots.
In 2007, he published the rewritten ''Messiások'' (''Messiahs''), another historical novel, for which he was awarded the
Angelus Award
The Angelus Central European Literature Award also known as Angelus Award () is a Polish international literary award established in 2006 and presented by the city of Wrocław, Lower Silesia. The award is given annually for best prose books writ ...
.
The hugely successful ''Tavaszi Tárlat'' (''Spring Exhibition'', 2010) describes the early days of the
Kádár Kádár (Hungarian, ' cooper', ) is a Hungarian surname which may refer to:
* Ján Kadár, Slovak-Hungarian film director
* János Kádár (1912–1989), Hungarian politician, top leader during the communist era
* Flóra Kádár (1928–2002), Hun ...
regime.
Selected bibliography
Novels
* ''Kerengő'' (1974)
* ''Az Ikszek'' (1981)
* ''A Jövevény'' (1990)
* ''A Jégmadár'' (2001)
* ''Fogság'' (2005). ''Captivity'', trans. Tim Wilkinson (2015)
*''Messiások'' (2007)
* ''Feleségverseny'' (2009)
* ''Tavaszi Tárlat'' (2010)
* ''Diavolina'' (2015)
*''Kőbéka. Mesély'' (2017)
Plays
* 1982 – A békecsászár (Hannibál; Balassi Menyhárt; Kőszegők; Káró király; A békecsászár)
* 1987 – Csirkefej (Jeruzsálem pusztulása;
Az imposztor; A kert; Esti műsor;
Csirkefej)
* 1997 – Mohózat (Ahogy tesszük; Legújabb Zrínyiász; Árpádház; Dobardan; Vircsaft; Kvartett)
* 2002 – Honderű (Honderű, Fogadó a Nagy Kátyúhoz, Szappanopera, Elsötétítés)
Poetry
* ''História'' (1977)
Featured in
* ''Balkan Plots: Plays from Central and Eastern Europe'', 2000. Aurora Metro Books.
References
External links
An English translation of the play ''Chickenhead''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiro, Gyorgy
1946 births
Living people
Writers from Budapest
Hungarian Jews
Translators to Hungarian
International Writing Program alumni
Members of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts
Russian–Hungarian translators