Shifts in Style and Perspective in Zsigmond Kemény'sThe Fanatics

Abstract

In this article the author discusses how changes in style in Zsigmond Kemeny's novel The Fanatics can be construed as shifts in perspective from that of the narrator to that of a character in the novel. By suggesting a distance between the narrator and the narration, these shifts in style render it impossible to consolidate the text as the work of a single agency with an identifiable perspective. The narrating presence, itself a blend of formulas taken from other narratives, evanesces behind the conventions that comprise the text. Rather than offer itself as an account of events told from a particular perspective, the text emerges as a constant wavering between different modes of literary production.