Introduction to the World of Cruelty

Civilisation, supervisory power and cruelty in Géza Ottlik’s works

Abstract

The paper examines Géza Ottlik’s novel School at the Frontier, as well as his other writings connected to the issue, along the concepts of civilisation, supervisory order and cruelty. It gives a survey of the power structure that allows for the cruelty in the boys’ military school which he presents in the novel, and he also deals in detail with the peculiarities of the moral view of the work. The study argues that Ottlik by presenting how a microcommunity functions reveals the “illusionary nature” of civilisation, namely, the fragility of the moral order of civilisation and the cruel human world hidden behind the „disguise” of external civilisation features.