Hana Sato, Grade 12
UWC Costa Rica
Ágota Kristóf (1935-2011) is a Hungarian author, migrant in Switzerland after the repression of the anti-communist revolution in Hungary by the Soviet military. She was born in Csikvánd, Hungary in 1935. After migrating to Switzerland in 1956, she faces multiple cultural barriers, where even the French language causes her a feeling of exclusion. Because of these hardships, most of her works contain an atmosphere of loneliness and longing for what she left behind. She commonly treats the topic of cultural belonging or nationality divergence.
Being a third culture individual, I have experienced so many doubts and feelings about my two cultural identities that are totally different. Within her works, there are so many outlooks that I also share and perceive. I adore her writing tone in which though the motifs are controversial she keeps a simple and concise narrative, always giving space to an unmistakable interpretation.
Interview: Hana Sato (S)
Interviewee: Ágota Kristóf (K)
S) Various of your books have been translated into many languages. I, personally, have read your novels in several languages. However, from your writing style, I have seen you truly avoid your words to be misinterpreted. Do you believe that translations alter your works?
K) I find it amazing that the books are being translated in more than 20 languages; it is incredible how these stories are being sold in languages that I can't even pronounce. The Notebook sells a lot.
S) Yes, The Notebook trilogy, those were the first books I read from you…
K) [Interrupts] In most of the cases it happens so. In the end, those were my longest novels.
S) Did you plan it to be a trilogy from the beginning?
K) No, no at all. I don’t tend to write thinking on further stories; I simply write what I remember at that moment. I first wrote The Notebook, then, people wanted to hear more from it, so I wrote two more books with the same people (The Proof, and The Third Lie).
S) Do you accept the word “trilogy”?
K) They all have the same people, so yes, I guess it is fine for me.
S) From all your fictional novels, all the characters are males, is there any reason for this?
K) They all draw the same story. I just write a little about my life. They are male because I did not feel comfortable describing women characters. Maybe because I always write thinking about my brothers, especially my younger brother Jeno.
S) What did you feel when you left your family in Hungary in the year…
K) [Interrupts] 1956. After the revolution.
S) Yes. I understand that after leaving, you didn’t go back to Hungary until very recent years.
K) I returned to Hungary twelve years after I left. Not to live back there. In 2011, I was awarded the Kossuth Prize, so I went back. When I left, my parents and brothers remained in Hungary. But it was my husband who wanted to move, so we moved, with my daughter that was still a baby.
S) In one of your novels you wrote about the cruelty of crossing the borders during winter with babies.
K) In The Illiterate. Yes, it also comes from my experience. It was at the end of November when we left Hungary; so it was already cold. I tried to keep my daughter as warm as possible with a few fabrics. I felt so sorry for her.
S) Lack of cultural belonging is a prevalent topic in your novels, especially in The Illiterate and Yesterday. After all the years living in Switzerland, did this feeling in you changed?
K) I got used to this life. That’s all I can say. Switzerland has never been my country, I do not belong here. Same with the French, it will never become a language of comfort; but I write with it, I would write in any language. The first years were the hardest, I was illiterate, I could not communicate with anyone, not even to ask how to do my job in the factory. I treasured a dictionary, and now that I can say that I know French, I still can not relinquish using it.
S) There is always a dominating amount of routine descriptions in your novels, why is this?
K) There is no meaning in it. I write about the character’s, in a big part my, lives; naturally, there will be many narrations of routines. That is what life is about. Getting used to what we face everyday.
S) How would you describe your novels?
K) They are realistic. Maybe too sad.
S) At last, I am writing my Extended Essay, a kind of literature analysis essay, with two novels. One of them is your autobiography The Illiterate. Is there any advice you would give me to understand the message in your novels better?
K) There is no message, no, I do not pretend to have a message. [Laughs] No at all. They are completely biographical, The Illiterate even more. All of my books write the same story over and over again. Maybe, you can focus on the relationship between them, the similarities perhaps. But in all honesty, I don’t know. I have never analyzed my own stories.
Bibliography
Kristóf, Agota., (2004). La Analfabeta. Spain: EDICIONES OBELISCO S.L..
Kristóf, Agota., (1995). Ayer. Spain: Libros del Asteroide.
Kristóf, Agota., (1997). The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels. United States: Grove Press.
Benedettini, Riccardo., (2016). "A CONVERSATION WITH ÁGOTA KRISTÓF." MUSIC & LITERATURE. Music & Literature, Inc. Retrieved in June, 2022. Retrieved from https://www.musicandliterature.org/features/2016/6/8/a-conversation-with-agota-kristof
Kuhlman, Martha., (2003). "The Double Writing of Agota Kristof and the New Europe." Studies in 20th Century Literature. Number 27 (Iss.1), article 6. Estados Unidos: Bryant College.
Szekeres, Dóra., (2011). "We can never express precisely what we mean." HUNGARIAN LITERATURE ONLINE. Litera. Retrieved in June, 2022. Retrieved from https://hlo.hu/interview/agota.html
Image Courtesy: https://www.bestialectora.com/2019/10/biografia-de-agota-kristof.html
Being a third culture individual, I have experienced so many doubts and feelings about my two cultural identities that are totally different. Within her works, there are so many outlooks that I also share and perceive. I adore her writing tone in which though the motifs are controversial she keeps a simple and concise narrative, always giving space to an unmistakable interpretation.
Interview: Hana Sato (S)
Interviewee: Ágota Kristóf (K)
S) Various of your books have been translated into many languages. I, personally, have read your novels in several languages. However, from your writing style, I have seen you truly avoid your words to be misinterpreted. Do you believe that translations alter your works?
K) I find it amazing that the books are being translated in more than 20 languages; it is incredible how these stories are being sold in languages that I can't even pronounce. The Notebook sells a lot.
S) Yes, The Notebook trilogy, those were the first books I read from you…
K) [Interrupts] In most of the cases it happens so. In the end, those were my longest novels.
S) Did you plan it to be a trilogy from the beginning?
K) No, no at all. I don’t tend to write thinking on further stories; I simply write what I remember at that moment. I first wrote The Notebook, then, people wanted to hear more from it, so I wrote two more books with the same people (The Proof, and The Third Lie).
S) Do you accept the word “trilogy”?
K) They all have the same people, so yes, I guess it is fine for me.
S) From all your fictional novels, all the characters are males, is there any reason for this?
K) They all draw the same story. I just write a little about my life. They are male because I did not feel comfortable describing women characters. Maybe because I always write thinking about my brothers, especially my younger brother Jeno.
S) What did you feel when you left your family in Hungary in the year…
K) [Interrupts] 1956. After the revolution.
S) Yes. I understand that after leaving, you didn’t go back to Hungary until very recent years.
K) I returned to Hungary twelve years after I left. Not to live back there. In 2011, I was awarded the Kossuth Prize, so I went back. When I left, my parents and brothers remained in Hungary. But it was my husband who wanted to move, so we moved, with my daughter that was still a baby.
S) In one of your novels you wrote about the cruelty of crossing the borders during winter with babies.
K) In The Illiterate. Yes, it also comes from my experience. It was at the end of November when we left Hungary; so it was already cold. I tried to keep my daughter as warm as possible with a few fabrics. I felt so sorry for her.
S) Lack of cultural belonging is a prevalent topic in your novels, especially in The Illiterate and Yesterday. After all the years living in Switzerland, did this feeling in you changed?
K) I got used to this life. That’s all I can say. Switzerland has never been my country, I do not belong here. Same with the French, it will never become a language of comfort; but I write with it, I would write in any language. The first years were the hardest, I was illiterate, I could not communicate with anyone, not even to ask how to do my job in the factory. I treasured a dictionary, and now that I can say that I know French, I still can not relinquish using it.
S) There is always a dominating amount of routine descriptions in your novels, why is this?
K) There is no meaning in it. I write about the character’s, in a big part my, lives; naturally, there will be many narrations of routines. That is what life is about. Getting used to what we face everyday.
S) How would you describe your novels?
K) They are realistic. Maybe too sad.
S) At last, I am writing my Extended Essay, a kind of literature analysis essay, with two novels. One of them is your autobiography The Illiterate. Is there any advice you would give me to understand the message in your novels better?
K) There is no message, no, I do not pretend to have a message. [Laughs] No at all. They are completely biographical, The Illiterate even more. All of my books write the same story over and over again. Maybe, you can focus on the relationship between them, the similarities perhaps. But in all honesty, I don’t know. I have never analyzed my own stories.
Bibliography
Kristóf, Agota., (2004). La Analfabeta. Spain: EDICIONES OBELISCO S.L..
Kristóf, Agota., (1995). Ayer. Spain: Libros del Asteroide.
Kristóf, Agota., (1997). The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels. United States: Grove Press.
Benedettini, Riccardo., (2016). "A CONVERSATION WITH ÁGOTA KRISTÓF." MUSIC & LITERATURE. Music & Literature, Inc. Retrieved in June, 2022. Retrieved from https://www.musicandliterature.org/features/2016/6/8/a-conversation-with-agota-kristof
Kuhlman, Martha., (2003). "The Double Writing of Agota Kristof and the New Europe." Studies in 20th Century Literature. Number 27 (Iss.1), article 6. Estados Unidos: Bryant College.
Szekeres, Dóra., (2011). "We can never express precisely what we mean." HUNGARIAN LITERATURE ONLINE. Litera. Retrieved in June, 2022. Retrieved from https://hlo.hu/interview/agota.html
Image Courtesy: https://www.bestialectora.com/2019/10/biografia-de-agota-kristof.html
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