Tragicomic Historiography in Tibor Fischer's Under the Frog

Abstract

Good fiction relies to a large extent on an appropriate relationship between style and content. A narrative's story and its treatment should support each other, lest the effect of the work of art be confusing to the reader and hence a failed effort to create an aesthetic version of reality. A novel that attempts to retell the tragic history of a violent revolution and at the same time tries to entertain the reader with a wealth of comic elements is facing a tough challenge, a challenge that Tibor Fischer takes on in Under the Frog . This essay deals with how Fischer combines what might seem to be mutually exclusive attitudes; the argument also examines the author's idiosyncratic comic technique. A close reading of Under the Frog shows that while the story supplies the tragic element, the novel's comic style provides the contrast and counterweight to the seriousness of its topic.