Decsy Sámuel és a Pannóniai Féniksz
Samuel Decsy and the Pannóniai Féniksz

The notion of “national character” in the discourses on the development of language and nation at the end of the 18th century in Hungary

Summary/Abstract: The study makes three remarks on the conceptual changes of “national character” at the end of the 18th century in Hungary. First, it ventures upon the comprehension of complex typologies regarding the Hungarian language and asks the following questions about contemporary texts? What was meant with them? And how different uses did they have? It defines a methodological problem, too, which have been proven to be extended in the references so far and handled the notion of national character subordinated to the longue dureé conceptual changes of “nation”. Our “language contextualist” solution claims the two to be separated in the hope of preventing the optical illusions in literature. The second remark applies to the Erfahrungsraum and the intellectual context of using “national character.” The fact that in the horizon of contemporary political thought, among other issues like the rivalry of people and the development of economy, military, constitution, administration, language and so forth were discussed, implies the question why contemporaries employed such rather pre-modern categories as national character in order to conceptualize the common good or the political community instead of describing a “refined nation” by a more modern vocabulary. The third argument approaches the intellectual background of the notion of national character, which shows links in particular to contemporary political affairs and to the realignment in the field of anthropology. In a Hungarian context, the disciplines of psychology, literature, philosophy (moral theology), pedagogy, medicine played an inevitable role in the changes that led to the creation of a new comprehension of the human being (in the centre with the human soul) and the community. In conclusion, the paper deduces a capable solution, which in theory bears a resemblance to the practice of retrofitting, to the conceptual turmoil at the turn of the 18th and 19th century.

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