Editing Imre Kertész (section)

== Controversy ==
[[File:FM-2019-1-6-2-30 Niggl-Radloff-B-Imre-Kertesz-ONLINE.jpg|thumb|Kertesz in the Bavarian [[Villa Waldberta]] (1992)]] 
Kertész was a controversial figure within Hungary, especially since being Hungary's first, and only, [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Laureate in Literature]], he still lived in Germany. This tension was exacerbated by a 2009 interview with ''[[Die Welt]]'', in which Kertész vowed himself a "[[Berlin]]er" and called Budapest "completely balkanized".<ref>{{cite news |title=Kertészkedés |newspaper=Hángörienidiocc |url=http://hangorienidiocc.blog.hu/2009/11/08/kerteszkedes_5 |access-date=11 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Krause |first1=Tilman |title=Ich schreibe keine Holocaust-Literatur, ich schreibe Romane |url=https://www.welt.de/welt_print/kultur/literatur/article5116030/Ich-schreibe-keine-Holocaust-Literatur-ich-schreibe-Romane.html |newspaper=[[Die Welt]]|access-date=31 March 2016 |language=de |date=7 November 2009}}</ref> Many Hungarian newspapers reacted negatively to this statement, claiming it to be hypocritical. Other critics viewed the Budapest comment ironically, saying it represented "a grudge policy that is painfully and unmistakably, characteristically Hungarian".<ref name="Hungarian Literature Online">{{cite web |title=Kertész birthday interview causes controversy |url=http://www.hlo.hu/news/kertesz_birthday_interview_causes_controversy |publisher=Hungarian Literature Online |access-date=11 May 2014}}</ref> Kertész later clarified in a [[Duna TV]] interview that he had intended his comment to be "constructive", and called Hungary "his homeland".<ref name="Hungarian Literature Online" />

Also controversial was Kertész's criticism of [[Steven Spielberg]]'s depiction of the Holocaust in the 1993 film ''[[Schindler's List]]'' as "[[kitsch]]", saying: "I regard as kitsch any representation of the Holocaust that is incapable of understanding or unwilling to understand the organic connection between our own deformed mode of life (whether in the private sphere or on the level of 'civilization' as such) and the very possibility of the Holocaust."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kertész|first=Imre|year=2001|others=Translated by John MacKay|title=Who Owns Auschwitz?|url=https://waukeshatemple.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/104/2020/10/Kertesz-Who-Owns-Auschwitz.pdf|access-date=12 December 2021|series=The Yale Journal of Criticism|volume=14 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|page=270|publication-date=1 April 2001|doi=10.1353/yale.2001.0010|s2cid=145532698 |issn=1080-6636}}</ref>

In November 2014, Kertész was the subject of an interview with ''[[The New York Times]]''. Kertész claimed the reporter was expecting him to question Hungary's democratic values and was shocked to hear Kertész say that "the situation in Hungary is nice, I'm having a great time". According to Kertész, "he didn't like my answer. His purpose must have been to make me call Hungary a dictatorship which it isn't. In the end, the interview was never published."<ref name="Hungarian Literature Online2">{{cite web |title=Elhallgatta a New York Times Kertész Imre véleményét |trans-title=The New York Times has kept back the opinion of Imre Kertész |url=http://mandiner.hu/cikk/20141111_elhallgatta_a_new_york_times_kertesz_imre_velemenyet |website=[[Mandiner]] |language=hu |date=11 November 2014 |access-date=11 November 2014}}</ref>