 |
customer@davidpublishing.com |
 |
3275638434 |
 |
 |
| Paper Publishing WeChat |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
DAI Zijin
Full-Text PDF
XML 35 Views
DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.06.003
Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
This article reframes the doctor’s obsessive writing as a form of existential resistance, arguing that narrative gaze functions not as withdrawal but as a paradoxical assertion of agency within Krasznahorkai’s cyclical world. Drawing on Sartre’s theories of “Hell is other people” and the “Gaze”, this essay argues that by refusing to establish genuine relationships with others, the doctor resists social oppression while simultaneously wallowing in self-alienation and extreme solitude. Furthermore, drawing on Nietzsche’s idea of the creative power of life, this essay explains that the doctor’s act of recording is not only a form of rebellion against the absurd world but also a creative practice through which he seeks meaning amid despair. The doctor’s existence shows “the cycle of hope and despair”, revealing an individual’s existential courage when confronts with nothingness amid collapsing order. This study aims to propose a new interpretive approach for the philosophical interpretation of Sátántangó.
Krasznahorkai, Sátántangó, narrative gaze, existential resistance, writing and agency, cyclical temporality
Aravindan, A. M., & Mishra, S. (2025). Haunted landscapes and gothic characters: An ecogothic reading of László Krasznahorkai’s Sátántangó. The Int. J. Literary Humanities, 23(1), 61-75. doi:10.18848/2327-7912/CGP/v23i01/61-75
Chaoxing Discover System. (n.d.). Sátántangó: Rethinking self and life after disillusionment.
Edit, Z. (1999). A Másik hangja Krasznahorkai László: Sátántangó. Irodalomtörténet, 2, 280-297. Retrieved from https://edit.elte.hu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10831/79527/EPA02518_irodalomtortenet_1999_02_280-297%20(1).pdf?sequence=1
Guo, W. B. (2024). Bergson’s concept of duration. Mingjia Mingzuo, 34, 63-65. (In Chinese)
Gyorgyey, C. (1995). Hungarian—A Theseus-altalanos by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. World Literature Today, 69(1), 192.
Hou, Y. X. (2024). Taren ji diyu: Bucun zai de chunrui de erhua guanxi—Yi Sate Jinbi wei zhongxin. JinGu Creative Literature, 5(2), 25-28. doi:10.20024/j.cnki.CN42-1911/I.2024.02.008 (In Chinese)
Krasznahorkai, L. (2012). Satantango. New York: New Directions.
Krasznahorkai, L., & Zimányi, K. (Mar. 2025). El tango de Satán (fragmento). Otros Diálogos, (30).
Krasznahorkai, L., & Zimányi, K. (Mar. 2025). El tango de Satán (fragmento). Otros Diálogos, (30).
Liu, B. (Nov. 30, 2009). László Krasznahorkai: The writer who resists everything. Jingji Guancha Bao, p. 46.
Liu, H. (2017). Shengcun jueze yu xiandai xing yu yan—Jiexie kelkeiguo’er de “chongfu”. World Philosophy, 62(6), 125-131. (In Chinese)
Nawotka, E. (n.d.). Circulus vitiosus diabolus: On temporality and nihilism in Sátántangó. ProQuest.
Nawotka, E. (Oct. 2025). László Krasznahorkai wins 2025 Nobel Prize for Literature. Publishers Weekly, 272(39), 7.
Sartre, J.-P. (2015). Being and nothingness. In Central works of philosophy, Vol. 4, twentieth century: Moore to Popper (pp. 155-176). Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Sartre, P. (Jun. 2012). Existentialism is a humanism. (X. L. Zhou & Y. K. Tang, Trans.). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Sun, X. (2023). A study of dystopian thought in László Krasznahorkai’s early novels (Master thesis, Changchun Univ. Technol., 2023). doi:10.26977/d.cnki.gccgc.2023.000325 (In Chinese)
Tillich. (1984). The courage to be. (C. Q. Cheng & Z. H. Wang, Trans.). Beijing: Commercial Press.
Xin Jing Bao. (Dec. 16, 2017). Sátántangó: A dystopian disillusionment.
Zhou, H. (2024). The retrieving of the real “experience”: A discussion on the essential relationship of temporality between “experience” and “involuntary memory” from Benjamin. Hubei Inst. Fine Arts J., 27(3), 73-79. (In Chinese)