Sisyphus in Kertész's Fatelessness

Abstract

In his article "Sisyphus in Kertész's Fatelessness" Eric Beck Rubin discusses Imre Kertész's novel in relation to the philosophy of eternal recurrence, namely the notion that an individual inhabits a universe made of finite possibilities experienced and re-experienced without variation or end. Early explorations of eternal recurrence by Friedrich Nietzsche were taken up by Albert Camus, and Beck Rubin argues that certain works by both authors are fundamental to any reading of Fatelessness. Further, Beck Rubin argues that Kertész's contribution to the debate can be viewed from two perspectives: one sees Kertész as an author in conversation with fellow authors writing his own allegory of Sisyphus, the character who embodies eternal recurrence, and the other looks at Kertész as a writer who turns Sisyphus into a symbol subject to ironic reinterpretation. Through such a process, Kertész turns the world of the concentration camps into the original Tartarus.