Combat Trauma in Móricz Zsigmond and Tamási Áron’s Short Stories

“The Great war” as the First World War was described in the 20’s and 30’s represented one of the first (but unfortunately not the last) human conflicts of the 20th century. Millions died on the battlefields, due to the discrepancies between mentality and technical developments and millions came back from the frontlines having unseen wounds which haunted their existence. The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD) was described as “shell shock” or “combat neurosis” and it was described in the war related literature long before it raised public awareness. In the present paper two Hungarian writers are taken into account: Móricz Zsigmond and Tamási Áron whose short stories present vivid, and in the same time, sad examples concerning the limits of human endurance.