„A lábatlan ember például egyet se botlik…” Nagy Lajos Képtelen természetrajz című művéről
‘A Legless Man, for Instance, Stumbles Not at All…’ An Essay on Lajos Nagy’s Volume, Entitled Nonsensical Natural History

Summary/Abstract: Lajos Nagy (1883–1954) is one of the most outstanding personalities of the 20th century Hungarian prose. He worked for the endurance, artistically significant not only in belle letter, but also in the genres of publicities. He came up with his brief, humoristic stories about animals in the beginning of the 1920s and in 1922 a collection of these short humoresques was published under the title Nonsensical Natural History (Képtelen természetrajz). Even after the first publication he made a great number of these humorous sketches – which enchants the reader with their fresh ideas and witty jokes. Not only the ingenious descriptions are making easier the reception of the reader, but also the fact that those typical texts he mocks are well known by both the reader of his age and that of the recent years. In the first part of my paper I examine the genres of Lajos Nagy’s sketches – the connections between his texts and the genre of the text in the encyclopaedia and in the bestiaries. In the second part, I intend to highlight the method he makes this kind of thinking ridiculous by using these disguised fables as subterfuge to mock the human thinking and behaviour building on schemes and schematic thinking.

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