The Absurdity of Ethics and the Ethics of the Absurd in Esterházy Péter’s Spionnovella and Spiró György’s Sajnálatos események

Abstract

This study explores how ethical narratives take shape through two significant works of modern Hungarian literature, both rooted in profound and haunting historical contexts. The selected texts—Esterházy’s Spionnovella and Spiró’s Sajnálatos események (Unfortunate Events) — converge around a key thematic axis: they both spotlight judicial procedures, such as trials, interrogations, and investigations, as mechanisms that record and codify ethical choices. Through these narrative frameworks, the works interrogate the power dynamics between authority and the individual, while probing the nature of ethical responsibility. Legal practice, depicted as a state-sanctioned model of societal ethical norms, becomes the central gravitational force within both texts. Yet, the narrative techniques employed also expose the fragility of this authority, unsettling its claims to legitimacy. It is this tension—between the power to judge and the ambiguity of justice—that prompts the reader to confront their own ethical stance in relation to the depicted world.