Death and melody: A psychobiography of Rezső Seress, composer of “Gloomy Sunday”

Rezső Seress (1899–1968), the composer of the world-famous song “Gloomy Sunday,” whose life ended in suicide, is analyzed using a psychobiographical approach. The research question is how can suicide be read through Seress’s self-narrations, embedded in the Hungarian cultural, social, and historical context? To answer this question, we integrate Kézdi’s theory of the negative code, Wallerstein’s world-systems theory, and McAdams’s narrative identity theory, linking language, structure, and the self. We analyzed nine song lyrics: counted explicit and narrowly defined implicit negations, calculated negation density (per 100 words), and coded narrative tone and plot, key life events, and agency/communion cues. Throughout the analysis, interpretation is hermeneutic and context-sensitive, with numbers serving as guides. Peaks in negation density appear in the songs “Nobody Has Ever Loved Me” (1930) and especially, “Just Drink, Drink” (1940), aligning with personal and historical crises. Agency markers are minimal or defensive, while communion is consistently framed as loss. No redemptive arc is identifiable; the life story follows a contamination sequence beginning in adversity. These patterns motivate the introduction of the tragic semiperipheral self (TSS) as a culturally and structurally situated narrative type. peerReviewed publishedVersion

雷泽·塞雷什（Rezső Seress，1899–1968）是享誉全球的歌曲《黑色星期天》（Gloomy Sunday）的作曲者，最终以自杀结束一生。本研究采用心理传记学研究方法（psychobiographical approach）对其展开个案分析。本研究的核心议题为：如何透过嵌入匈牙利文化、社会与历史语境中的塞雷什的自我叙事，解读其自杀行为？为解答该议题，本研究整合凯兹迪（Kézdi）的负面编码理论、沃勒斯坦（Wallerstein）的世界体系理论与麦克亚当斯（McAdams）的叙事身份理论，将语言、结构与自我三者建立起有机联结。本研究分析了九首歌曲的歌词：统计显性否定与狭义界定的隐性否定的出现频次，计算否定密度（每100词中的否定词占比），并对叙事基调与情节、关键人生事件、能动性（agency）与共融（communion）线索进行编码。整个分析过程采用诠释学路径且高度紧扣语境，量化数据仅作为分析指引。否定密度峰值出现在《无人曾爱我》（1930）与尤为突出的《只管饮酒》（1940）两首作品中，这与彼时的个人与历史危机高度契合。作品中的能动性标记寥寥无几且带有防御性色彩，而共融叙事始终以“失去”为核心叙事框架。本研究未发现任何救赎性叙事弧光，其人生叙事遵循了始于逆境的“污染序列”模式。上述研究发现推动我们提出“悲剧性半边缘自我（Tragic Semiperipheral Self, TSS）”这一兼具文化与结构属性的叙事类型。经同行评审的已发表版本。