Confessions of a Bourgeois and Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

Abstract

The article deals with two autobiographical novels: Egy polgár vallomasái (Confessions of a Bourgeois), by Sándor Márai, and Memorien eines Antisemiten (Memoirs of an Anti-Semite), by Gregor von Rezzori. After having outlined the biographies of the two authors, among differences and common traits, the article focuses on the two Bildungsromane – which narrate two life experiences in the Central European context of the intellectual bourgeoisie, between the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries – and on the relationship with the concepts of Erfahrung, Erlebnis and Dasein. In particular, the themes of bourgeois education and anti-Semitic miseducation emerge from the two texts among confessions and memories.