György Spiró
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gyorgy (George) Spiro (born April 4, 1946) is a dramatist, novelist and essayist who has emerged as one of post-war Hungary's most prominent literary figures.
The son of an engineer from Miskolc in eastern Hungary, he graduated in Hungarian and Slavic literature from the ELTE University of Budapest in 1970, and completed additional studies in journalism and sociology. His earlier career was spent in radio journalism. More recently, in addition to his writing, he has been employed as Professor of Literature and Aesthetics at ELTE University.
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 Chickenhead (1986), an earthy and bitter drama of a young delinquent's disillusionment at the longed-for reunion with his drunken father. Dramatic Exchange described it as "widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years."
His avant-garde style, depicting coarse language and characters outside the pale of respectability, often dismayed more traditional Hungarian critics, and the criticism occasionally takes on an anti-semitic tinge.
His most recent work, and most ambitious creation to date, is an 800 page novel, Fogsag, (Captivity), published in 2005. Set in the Roman Empire in the time of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, it follows the experiences of a Jewish wanderer named Uri. Spiro's earlier works eschewed Jewish themes, but in this work he returns to his ancestral roots.
