The Birth of Márai Sándor as a Writer: A Sociological Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to outline the psychosociography of Sándor Márai from his early days, analyzing the writer’s sociological problems, in order to comprehend the personal and social processes in the writer’s formation. Becoming a writer is a lifelong endeavor influenced by a variety of factors, including personal, emotional, and psychological characteristics of one’s family, education, and social class. Furthermore, being a writer is an intensive activity that requires constant effort, discipline, creativity, and a consistent strategy in order to compete in a field of numerous writers and forms of writing. This paper’s temporal framework begins with the early days of Márai’s writing. It was in the period of 1914–1928 that the young Márai laid the foundations of his career, determined to become a recognized master in Europe. To investigate the significance of the first stage of his oeuvre, we gathered all the works he published during that time, resulting in an astonishing discovery of 1630 texts, including books and press articles. Furthermore, we explore the psychosocial conditions that appear to have made him pursue a career as a writer. We dig into his childhood memories, approaching some interpretations based on Freudian psychoanalysis.