A man for all seasons: Exile, suffering and martyrdom in the autobiography of Miklós Bethlen

Zsombor Tóth
2012 Hungarian Studies  
This paper attempts to evaluate the historical anthropological process of self-fashioning performed by count Miklós Bethlen. In doing so, the aim of my interpretation is to delineate those cultural and historical contexts that influenced Bethlen's habit of constituting and fashioning a self in his ego-documents. Taking as a point of departure Bethlen's twofold liminality, I argue that he identified himself with the prototype of the early modern Calvinist martyr, so that he could provide an
more » ... nt of his life imitating the so called récit martyrologique as a narrative genre. Bethlen's self-fashioning displayed in his memoirs, letters and political projects, reveals his special commitment to Puritan theology and devotional culture as well.
doi:10.1556/hstud.26.2012.2.7 fatcat:rwhmgcm6ybbcdewepdbozwnrce