On the Prince Rudolf Motif in Joyce’s Ulysses and Krúdy’s Jockey Club
On the Prince Rudolf Motif in Joyce’s Ulysses and Krúdy’s Jockey Club

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the presence of Prince Rudolf, son of Franz Joseph and Archduke of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy as theme, motivic structure and artistic inspiration in James Joyce’s Ulysses and Gyula Krúdy’s Jockey Club. While these two literary reflections are not the only cultural responses to the Mayerling incident in which the Prince and his lover Maria von Vetsera lost their lives, they are among the ones that focus not so much on the sensational impact of the historical material but treat the mysterious royal narrative as emblematic of a major civilizational transition from dynastic rule to nationalism and political pluralism, from the predominance of communal thought to individualism and, ultimately, from lingering premodern cultural contexts to full-blown modernity.

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