Problems of the "Superhuman" in the works of Móricz Dostoevsky’s and Nietzsche’s influence in Sárarany

Abstract

The Hungarian novelist Zsigmond Móricz is not typically regarded as an author captured and impacted by the world’s literary works (maybe except for his reference to Flaubert in Behind God’s Back). His novel entitled Sárarany, however, does exhibit features in common with other works of world literature e.g. the influence of Crime and Punishment and Zarathustra in Móricz’s novel is obvious.as it regards numerous  features ranging from motives through the depiction of details to the characterisation of figures. In addition, the basic questions discussed in Crime and Punishment and Zarathustra, i.e. the opposition between the human and the superhuman, the limits and boundaries of morality, and the problematisation of sin itself create a dialogue in Móricz’s uniquely Hungarian story as far as the novel’s discussion of the two works’ value systems is concerned. This paper seeks to reconstruct the above-mentioned dialogue and aims to describe the effects of Dostoevsky’s and Nietzsche’s works on the Hungarian author’s novel.