Literary and artistic association ‘Start’ (1942–1944): an episode of wartime Polish literature in Hungarian exile Cover Image

Koło Literacko-Artystyczne „Start” (1942–1944): epizod z dziejów życia literackiego polskiego wojennego uchodźstwa na Węgrzech
Literary and artistic association ‘Start’ (1942–1944): an episode of wartime Polish literature in Hungarian exile

Author(s): Krzysztof Woźniakowski
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie
Keywords: Hungarian exile; Polish literature; WWII;

Summary/Abstract: Amongst the Polish exiles who during the World War II found themselves in the Kingdom of Hungary, more than twenty had literary ambitions and regularly published their works. Eleven of them, mostly young, twenty-year-old debutants living in Budapest, set up a literary and artistic association ‘Start’, which functioned between 1942 and 1944. The association (whose main leader and the most gifted member was Leon Kaltenbergh, a poet and a critic) did not have a fixed literary programme. Instead, it was a forum, which enabled the exiled artists to share their experiences and actively participate in the organisation of the Polish artistic life in Hungary. The ‘Start’ members published 12 own books (10 collections of poetry, 2 books of short stories) and 3 volumes of Hungarian poetry in translation. They also organised 4 public poetry readings. The invasion of German troops on Hungary on 19th March 1944 put an end to ‘Start’.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 12
  • Page Range: 162-175
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish
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