Studies

RUINS OF CASTLES

Zoltán HERMANN — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The three novels in verse (Csobáncz, Tátika, Somló) of Sándor Kisfaludy’s (1772-1844) Himfy, published in 1807, are not simply texts of Hungarian preromanticism, of romantic, individualistic ways of reading, but – according to my hypothesis – they also reveal communal, mediatized forms of reading. The old, Hungarian noble, communal, social gatherings are often found in verse narratives (the reges) imitating local sagas, as part of storytelling. Kisfaludy’s stanzas evoking social entertainment are reminiscent of the idyllic noble entertainments of the 14th and 16th centuries, but they are also descriptions, allegories and throwbacks to the past of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially of the excursionist parties who spent their time in their spa treatments at Balatonfüred in the 1830-40s.

Kisfaludy already uses this ‘touristic’ narrative genre in his own travelogues, but his thematic sources, the Gothic horror stories of Veit Weber and Joseph Alois Gleich, which have been researched by literary historians, are also full of these genres of imitative sagas. The Kisfa- ludy tales were also performed as theatrical productions (live pictures), and groups of excursionists gathered at the castle ruins indicated in the titles of the tales and read, recited and sang them together in the first half of the 19th century.

LINGUISTIC IDENTITY AS A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF SOCIAL CONFLICT IN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE

Orsolya NÁDOR — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The study seeks to answer the question of how the emergence and primacy of linguistic identity provokes reactions in majority and minority societies, based on examples from Central and Eastern European countries and related to the Hungarian language. To do this, I briefly review certain elements of local and cultural identity, highlighting the linguistic features that are present but do not play a central role. An important element of identity is the use of names, which plays an increasingly important role as linguistic identity comes to the fore. In many cases, linguistic identity only gains meaning in relation to others, potentially leading to linguistic inequality, discrimination, and indirectly to conflicts, disputes, and even aggression rooted in language.

PLACE NAMES REFERRING TO FORESTS AND TREES IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN (I)

Ádám István KURCZ — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hungarian place names often refer to a wide range of topics related to trees: distinctive tree species, forests; methods and traces of deforestation; forest animals, hunting, and other forest-related activities. These are discussed thematically and alphabetically, along with the localization and explanation of the related settlement names. – In the more mountainous central and peripheral regions of the Carpathian Basin place names referring to forests are more common, while the central areas are mainly used for food production. Place names in the lowland areas typically refer to water-loving species (borrowed from hydronyms) or planted orchards. If a dialect word appears in the place names of other regions, it suggests a once broader distribution. – Many old professions were also tied to the forest, and human activities significantly transformed the plant cover, leading to a reduction in forests. Historical linguistics primarily draws conclusions about these processes from place names, shedding light on what replaced the forests, and how the ancient forests were transformed into planted or coppiced woods.

LYÁNYOK, LYÁNYOK: LAKODALOM (GIRLS, GIRLS: WEDDING)

Mónika BITTNER — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The play Népi rablét (Folk prisoners) by Béla Pintér was first performed before an audience on December 19, 1998. The play has been missing from the repertoire of Béla Pintér and Company for over fifteen years, however the social commentary expressed in the work is perhaps even more pertinent today than it has ever been. The blurb of Folk Prisoners says that we will see three days of a rural wedding condensed into the play, but in reality the audience is presented with the social problems that become apparent during this countryside wedding feast. The celebration has become devoid of meaning, or rather due to consumer culture, traditions have become distorted, folklore misinterpreted and the audience gains insight into the destruction of homo festivus as it appears on stage.

THE NAZI IDEAL OF HUMANKIND, YOUTH IMAGE, AND CHILD REPRESENTATION PRACTICES

Renátó TÁMBA — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In my paper, I aim to examine the ideal of humanity, youth and child representation in Nazi imagery and plastic depictions through the ideological products of the period, using the iconographic-iconological method. The imagery of this period directly reflected the slogans of Nazi ideology: the ideal of the healthy, strong Aryan man and the image of the self-sacrificing, family-devoted woman, which appeared in paintings and sculptures with a propagandistic character, approaching fundamental questions of human existence in a highly discriminatory and overly essentialist manner. Children were mostly depicted within a family context or as members of the Hitler Youth, far from being valued for their own sake. The evolving, maturing child was not a focus of the visual culture of the period, which, being future-oriented, projected Nazi ideals, objectives, and ideological expectations onto representations of children, families, and youth alike. In my writing, I investigate the distinctive ways in which new ideals manifested in the ideologically harmful visual culture of the Nazi era. Given the awkward nature of Nazi representations, it is also worth focusing on the destructive effects of ideologically damaging visual culture.

ARS CRITICA

Ákos NÉMETH — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Takáts József. 2022. Átrendeződések: Kritikai írások. Budapest: Kalligram Kiadó

THE DISCOURSE OF THE VERSE NOVEL AND THE POEM OF HUMANITY

Gabriella TÖRÖK — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Imre Madách’s Az ember tragédiája [THe Tragedy of Man] (1862) and Pál Závada’s verse novel Apfelbaum. Nagyvárad, Berlin (2022) can be excellently compared from several perspectives. The works of these two authors intersect with a multitude of contrasts and analogies. This paper seeks to highlight the similarities, differences, and points of connection between them using a comparative method. The primary aim of the research is to examine the characters in the works, especially the portrayal of the concept of God. Additionally, the study addresses the well-known literary topos of the nature of female figures.

A BIOPOETIC APPROACH OF KATALIN LADIK’S POETRY

Dóra SZŰCS — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of the study is to explore the biopoetic elements of the lyrical opus represented in Katalin Ladik’s volume Idővitorla – Válogatott versek (1962–2022) [Time-sail – Selected Poems (1962-2022)], published in 2022, thus providing the possibility of a new reading to complement the reception, which is essentially (neo)avant-garde-centric and focuses on folkloristic elements. Biopoetic (and other posthumanist approaches that question the hegemony of the human) approaches, by exploring the literary representation of life – bios – attempt to reveal layers of meaning that have hitherto remained hidden through the relationship between culture and nature, the human and the non-human, language and the body. In this collection, the characteristic features and recurring motifs of Katalin Ladik’s poetry, including the diversity of poetic representations of natural beings, which is of particular relevance to this research, can be clearly discerned. In addition to the poetic representations of the environment, flora and fauna, and their relations with humans, the essay also examines the poetic embedding of breathing (and sound formation) and questions of universal existence in the context of Idővitorla.