Új lehetőségek az irodalomszociológiában. Kutatástörténeti és módszertani felvezető egy erdélyi magyar középiskolások olvasmányszerkezetének jellemzőit feltáró kutatás elé
Author(s): Péter Zoltán Kovács / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 03/2024
Keywords: sociology of literature; reading habits; high school generation; comparative analysis; textual analysis; generational studies
My paper is related to my doctoral research, in which I examine the textual characteristics of literature popular among high school students. The basis of this examination is formed by the literature of the field from the past decades. My paper also includes a review of research in the field. Furthermore, I demonstrate where the caesura lies that separates today's high school generation from previous generations, and I also answer what the basis of this division might be. I present previous studies conducted in Hungary, and I also address the lack of data regarding research focusing on young people, particularly Hungarian youth in Transylvania. I outline the methodology and the questions that any new research must ask if it is curious about what and how the high school generation reads. I also endeavour to present contemporary methods through which these reading habits can be analysed and compared with those of previous generations. Finally, I propose that any new research should not only be preoccupied with the analysis of reading habits but also the comparative analysis of the works read, which is the focus of my doctoral research.
In an interview with Imre József Balázs, literary critic Artemisz Harmath discusses the new possibilities created through the institutions she created: IGYIC and MeseCentrum are currently the most important hubs of children’s culture in Hungary. As Harmath argues, she always tried to create the projects of IGYIC by linking at least two audiences, for example, linking university education and secondary education, or parents and secondary education. Another objective was to link the different (online and written) channels through which they convey their messages. The main objective is to disseminate knowledge, with quality contemporary literature and literary education as the two main pillars of a larger plan, which includes also professional literary criticism of the youth genres.
Author(s): Levente T. Szabó / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 03/2024
Keywords: Backfischroman; feminism; teenage girl novel; 19th century literature; radicalism
A vast array of translated foreign prose aimed at teenage girls played a significant role in providing both a foundation and new momentum for Hungarian girls' novels. These novels were marketed as progressing along the path of romanticism, and expressing the noblest emotions of the heart, devoid of tastelessness and ambiguity. Another part of this corpus of texts is connected to the German Backfischroman. This genre presents more rebellious, independent adolescents than the other variants, often featuring sensual references. Hungarian variations, mostly written by women, but occasionally by men, can be glimpsed around the turn of the century. These portray radically challenging depictions of society, and more rebellious teenage girls than the conventional Hungarian girls' novels of that time. The article exemplifies this type of novels through works by Terka Lux, Elek Benedek and Emma Ritoók.
„Beteg, nagyon beteg volt e haza…” Vachott Sándorné: Szikláry Ilona, történeti beszély az ifjúság számára
Author(s): Zoltán Hermann / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 03/2024
Keywords: adaptation; historical novel; literary prize; literature for girls; youth fiction
In the two decades after the defeat of the1848-1849 Hungarian Revolution, Mrs. Mária Vachott (her husband, Sándor Vachott was a famous literary editor in the 1840s and at the time of the revolution the secretary of Lajos Kossuth) successfully carried out a programme of disseminating Hungarian language youth literature, especially for girls. She edited anthologies and started a series of books (Vachott Sándoné ifjúsági iratai – Mrs. Vachott’s Papers for Young People etc.). These include her historical patriotic novel for girls from 1861, Ilona Szikláry. At the suggestion of her mentor, the writer-politician, Baron József Eötvös, Mrs. Vachott wrote the story as set at the end of the 16th century, during the reign of the Turks in Hungary. However, the story is an adaptation: the turning points in the plot strongly resemble to those of the plot of Christoph von Schmid’s biedermeier novel Rosa von Tannenburg (1823). Von Schmid was also a popular writer in Hungary, widely read in both German and Hungarian, and in 1850 the 'Tannenburgi Róza' was published in Hungarian. It is a curious fact that neither the critic of Mrs. Vachott's novel, Ferenc Salamon in 1861, nor the members of the committee that awarded the literary prize to this novel, offered by Countess Karolin Zichy, didn’t recognise the obvious plagiarism – or tried to conceal the similarity.
Keywords: children’s literature; verse novel; 19th century literature; cancel culture
The contemporary landscape of Hungarian children's literature production is characterized by various contexts that reshape, confine, and channel the evolution of children's literature along predetermined trajectories. The verse novel, as a genre, possesses an adequate amount of reflexivity and complexity to formulate responses on multiple levels and to provide a metalevel perspective on these inquiries. In my study, stemming from the interpretation of Dániel Varró’s work Túl a Maszat-hegyen (Beyond the Smudgy Mountain) I attempt to delineate the literary processes to which Varró’s work responds in its poetic and thematic solutions.
The improbable popularity of the “Kuflis” series by András Dániel raises questions about its causes. What makes this absurd and unlikely fairy-tale world captivating for both a five-year-old and an adult art historian or literature scholar? The “Kuflis” universe is unlike the conventional fairy-tale realm. Its main characters are amorphous, the plot is entirely arbitrary, and the illustrations deliberately defy the traditional beauty ideals of children's books. Moreover, the moral lessons, or rather the lack thereof, go against the norm, as acknowledged even by the characters within the stories themselves. The series manages to engage the interests of both young children and adults, challenging conventional storytelling norms and aesthetic expectations. The author analyses patterns of the dialogue between text and visuality in the series, that may answer some of the questions discussed above.
In a dialogue with Imre József Balázs, Dóra Péczely, editor and literary therapist discusses the possibilities of approaching young readers through specific selections of literature. Four successful anthologies of both contemporary and classical literature, conceived by Dóra Péczely, had a thematic, but also generational approach to what young readers expect to enter the field of reading.
Discussing her literary events organized in different countries, Anna Juhász answers the questions of Imre József Balázs, highlighting that the key to her events is the personal involvement. Contemporary authors participating in such events mediate this involvement, but such connection can be developed similarly with classical authors. Events consisting of discussions, readings and music follow the same logic: aiming to ensure that all generations are represented in these programmes, to organize events where high school students, adults and grandparents can all experience art and literature.
In previous writings, the author discussed the extracurricular possibilities for fostering readership and some methodological characteristics to achieve positive results. This article presents the issue through the experience connected to a reading competition. Among the well-known methods for promoting readership, the approach of reading competitions is particularly appealing to children for several reasons. Firstly, children enjoy activities outside the school setting; they appreciate the opportunity to venture beyond the familiar school environment. Additionally, the voluntary nature of these activities is a key factor. Secondly, competition and rivalry are popular forms of utilizing and applying academic knowledge among students, especially when they can participate in teams. The reading competition is capable of satisfying both of these preferences. The author discusses the history of a reading competition organized annually in Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureș, at the local bookfair.
A 21. századi olvasó útvesztője és a mágikus segítők
Author(s): Eszter Szabó / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 03/2024
Keywords: book club; contemporary literature; podcast; social media; youth culture
As an organizer of book clubs, and as a radio editor who runs a literary podcast, the author discusses the possibilities of such endeavours in present-day Transylvania. The goal of these activities is to promote sophisticated literary texts in a widely accessible and understandable manner. This approach has been experimented with extensively in various forms and across age groups, ranging from adults to practically all age brackets: adult book clubs, events for children, operating a Bookstagram page, and a podcast, with a growing sense of professionalism.
The paper analyses the presence of Hungarian book publishing as a theme in the Hungarian written press in Romania in the last two years (2022-23). The author investigates the extent to which information on the state of Hungarian publishing in Romania reaches the wider public who follows the print and online press. Looking at a year's worth of publishing reports, major book events stand out and set the rhythm of book publishing in Romania. News articles tend to discuss the issues referring to book publishing connected to these events, highlighting current problems, but also positive attitudes
Author(s): Vera Schiller / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 1/2024
Keywords: to return to life; Alcestis; Orpheus; Asclepius
This paper deals with the voluntary death of Euripides’s heroine, Alcestis, who saves her husband’s life by accepting death for herself and then succeeds in returning to life. The study compares similar myths which replicate Orpheus’s journey in the underworld and in which husbands try to get back their spouses from death with more or less success. The study deals with the mythical perils with which the Underworld threatens those who dare enter, and also with the hazards that beset those who help the deceased back to life (e.g. the madness of Hercules or the death of Asclepius). The discussion demonstrates that mythical variants in which reemergence ends with complete success (like in Alcestis’s story) are extremely rare.
Keywords: Callimachus; Arsinoe; Simonides; historical elegy; allusion; cultural memory
This paper discusses the fragmentary poem Ektheosis Arsinoes by Callimachus as a memorialization of the deceased queen Arsinoe II, wife of Ptolemy II. First it looks at the genre and structure of the poem. This leads to the consideration of the allusions which can be detected in the text. In addition, the study offers a new hypothesis regarding the poem’s historical context.
Ferenc Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania, was the first hero of Hungarian national independence at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the early years of the 20th century, after decades of social and political struggle, the transportation of the prince’s body from his original burial place in Constantinople to Hungary came within reach. Until that happened, the prince’s tomb was visited several times and for various purposes by Hungarian historians, politicians, religious leaders, and public figures. These visits became known as the Rákóczi pilgrimages; the most significant among them being the pilgrimage of 1903. It involved important rituals informed by cultic attitudes: visiting the tomb of a saint, participating in cultic ceremonies, and collecting relics. The event was one of the most important modern pilgrimages of the early 20th century, with historical roots dating back to the early modern period.
The dominion-historical aspects of the mid–18th century are not only significant from economic and historic points of view. Agriculture, the powerhouse of the Hungarian Kingdom, with its joint manufacturing industry, significantly determined the social status of the noble families of the era. The primary source of this paper is an urbarium (socage) containing an inventory, completed in 1778. On its basis it is easier to quantify the real impact of a not-so-well-known lesser noble family, the Bályoki–Hégen Szénás family. Data found in this document could show us on what scale, with how much income and by what methods they have led their estates. With the help of research published in the field, it is possible to calculate the expenses of the family approximately, making it easier to calculate their real profit and to determine the characteristics of their management strategies.
Legendák Mátyás királyról: hogyan lettek a falra festett csillagászokból csillagvizsgálók?
Author(s): Endre Zsoldos / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 1/2024
Keywords: King Matthias I; history of astronomy; observatories; Regiomontanus; humanists
In the light of later tragic events, the age of King Matthias I seemed brighter, the deeds of his courtiers looked more significant in the eyes of subsequent generations. According to scholarship and popular literature, there were several working astronomical observatories in the country at that time, and humanists in the court of Matthias have been presented as pre-Copernican thinkers. In this paper, I will attempt to show the error of such beliefs and to find their sources. Contemporary travellers did not mention any observatories in the Castle of Buda. According to the 1591 description by Václav Vratistlav, however, two painted astronomers were visible on the wall of the library; these were later changed into observatories (Sternwarten) in the German translation. The Hungarian public became acquainted with the writing of the Czech traveller through this German translation, so they read about observatories rather than astronomers. This is supported by the fact that the Hungarian sources written before the German translation did not mention any astronomical institutions. The possible cause of the supposed pre-Copernicanism of the humanists in the court of Matthias is possibly the very important role of the Sun in the writings of some of them. The Sun, however, was not the centre of the Universe but the centre of the planets, i.e. the fourth among the seven. The cause of all these misunderstandings and errors was the idealization of the age of Matthias, the yearning for a glorious past, and the sloppy use of such concepts as an astronomical observatory.
The basis of classical/traditional (Western) astrology was defined by a unitary – hierarchical and spherical – world view until the 17th. century. This world view, which we now call the „astrological world view,” was based on the Hermetic–Pythagorean–Platonic tradition on which astrology as „applied hermetics,” the science of the Platonic World Soul, was built. The present paper discusses the basic principles of the astrological tradition from a philosophical approach. These principles are inseparable from the creation and functioning of the World which Plato transmitted to us in his dialogue Timaeus.
The paper examines the difference between the Soviet diplomatic response to the Bolivian military coup of 1971 and to the Chilean military coup of 1973. Both military takeovers were right-wing, American-friendly, and aimed at removing Soviet-friendly left-wing regimes. However, the Soviets did not break diplomatic relations with Bolivia after the coup of Colonel Banzer on 17 August 1971. By contrast, after the 11 September 1973 coup of General Pinochet in Chile, the Soviet Bloc shut down relations soon. The paper shows that the fallen left-wing regime of Bolivia had much looser ties with the Soviet Union, the Communist Party, and the important socialist country of Cuba, than the Allende regime of Chile. The regime coming to power after the 1971 coup were also much less anti-Soviet than the government of General Pinochet in Chile.
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