A Guide to Hungarian Culture
A Guide to Hungarian Culture
Contributor(s): Antal Bognár (Editor), György Szondi (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Philosophy, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: Napkút Kiadó Kft.
Keywords: language; history; religion; ethnography; architecture; applied arts; fine arts; literature; theatre; music; dance; film; photography; science and technology; sport; philosophy; everyday life
Summary/Abstract: Our geographic and historical location on the Continent and in the world has meant that we’ve always been simultaneously in the centre and at the periphery, located at the edge of Europe yet at the ancient heart chakra of the globe, and in the Carpathian Basin with its abundance of water – the greatest treasure for the future. Hungarian culture in 17 chapters: language, history, religion, ethnography, architecture, applied arts, fine arts, literature, theatre, music, dance, film, photography, science and technology, sport, philosophy and everyday life.
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-963-263-735-8
- Page Count: 376
- Publication Year: 2017
- Language: English
My Native Land
My Native Land
(My Native Land)
- Author(s):Mihály Babits
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Poetry
- Page Range:7-10
- No. of Pages:4
- Price: 4.50 €
The Past, Present, and Future of the Hungarian Language
The Past, Present, and Future of the Hungarian Language
(The Past, Present, and Future of the Hungarian Language)
- Author(s):Géza Balázs
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Finno-Ugrian studies
- Page Range:11-28
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:Hungarian language; Finno- Ugrian language family; Hungarian language history
- Summary/Abstract:Hungarians think of their language and culture as being “small” and “unique”, even though ten million people speak Hungarian in Hungary, a further 2.5-3 million speak it in the neighbouring countries of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria, and another approximately 1-1.5 million speak it throughout the world (in Europe, America, and Australia). Th us, around 13.5 or 14 million speak Hungarian (Hungarians like to talk about “15 million” Hungarians). The number of Hungarian speakers makes it 42nd in the world, and 12th in Europe.
- Price: 4.50 €
Chronicle of the Hungarians
Chronicle of the Hungarians
(Chronicle of the Hungarians)
- Author(s):László Csorba
- Language:English
- Subject(s):History
- Page Range:29-64
- No. of Pages:36
- Keywords:Hungarian history
- Summary/Abstract:The immense, flat plain that lies between the Ural and Carpathian mountains, north of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, allowed dozens of nomadic peoples to wander, separating and mixing, approximately fifteen hundred years ago. A people appeared among them in the reports of Arab and Persian merchants in the 9th century A.D, a people who called themselves Magyar. They inhabited the region where the Kama and Volga Rivers meet (today it is the Bashkir Autonomous Federal Republic of the Russian Federation). Th is was the moment that the Hungarian people entered the writt en history of the world.
- Price: 4.50 €
Religion, churches, religious communities
Religion, churches, religious communities
(Religion, churches, religious communities)
- Author(s):András Csepregi
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theology and Religion
- Page Range:65-74
- No. of Pages:10
- Summary/Abstract:Compared to other European countries, contemporary Hungary can be considered as a moderately secularized society. Its religious life is livelier than that of the majority of Western and Northern European countries, but less intensive than that of its Central and Eastern European neighbours. However, in this glass which is half empty and half full, a uniquely colourful religious life can be found. Besides the Catholic church, which comprises two-thirds of religious people, practically all protestant and neo- protestant denominations exist, as well as older and more recent charismatic communities, ethnically based, larger and smaller orthodox church-groups, four different traditions within Judaism, muslim communities, followers of various Buddhist traditions, believers of Krishna-consciousness, and numerous circles experimenting with ancient or newer religious practices.
- Price: 4.50 €
A Unique Folk Culture in Europe
A Unique Folk Culture in Europe
(A Unique Folk Culture in Europe)
- Author(s):Vilmos Voigt
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
- Page Range:75-98
- No. of Pages:24
- Summary/Abstract:Although it is connected to its environment by a thousand strands, Hungarian folk culture is unique. Although every culture can be equally valuable, it is impossible not to notice this unique quality that has manifested in the remote and recent past, and which is obvious even today. We are a people who came from the East; our environment doesn’t understand our language. We have met the unexpected challenges well at times and very badly at other times. Meanwhile, we have always tried to live in accordance with our own values; this quality has been decisively important in Hungarian folk culture. “Magyar” culture has almost always tried to adopt from others quickly. While it is an open and adaptable culture, it has always remained itself. It is a mystery, however, not only to the outside world but also to itself. Although it is on the whole a unifi ed culture, it has always had to contend with innumerable internal differences and confl icts.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Special Spatial Forms of Hungarian Architecture
The Special Spatial Forms of Hungarian Architecture
(The Special Spatial Forms of Hungarian Architecture)
- Author(s):János Gerle
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Architecture
- Page Range:99-120
- No. of Pages:22
- Summary/Abstract:The concept of a special Hungarian architecture emerged in the early 19th century, when cultural independence was an important issue in other areas, too. Count István Széchenyi’s writings on this subject in 1834 (Dust and Mud in Pest) are considered to be the fi rst formulations of these concepts, which are still valid today: “I cannot describe the varied and unusual impressions the city made on me when I fi rst travelled down the Danube to Pest…On going ashore I asked, where is the old city; where are the dwellings of the descendants of the Scythians of yore; where is the court of their princes? I look at these dwellings and the question arises automatically: how is it that in the middle of Hungary, the Hungarian of today lives in houses built in the Italian style? Neither the northern nor the southern model is perfectly suited for Hungarian buildings; the original image of the Hungarian nation and its climate has special characteristics, even if they aren’t necessarily striking, so its architecture must be independent, and, consequently, these edifi ces must necessarily show special features…”
- Price: 4.50 €
A Treasure-House of Applied Arts
A Treasure-House of Applied Arts
(A Treasure-House of Applied Arts)
- Author(s):György Fekete
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts
- Page Range:121-142
- No. of Pages:22
- Summary/Abstract:A survey of Hungarian industrial or applied arts is guided by historical factors, the practice of the craft , and social, political, and cultural movements. Th is survey can be divided logically into two parts, the first period lasting from the conquest of Hungary to the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, and the second from that time to our day. The first period, lasting about 900 years, included the whole Carpathian Basin as unifi ed geographical area. We shall focus our att ention on the 100 years of development that are in direct contact with our day. Th is period describes the time that the signifi cance of Hungarian applied arts within the applied arts of Europe and the world became stabilized.
- Price: 4.50 €
A Tableau of the Fine Arts
A Tableau of the Fine Arts
(A Tableau of the Fine Arts)
- Author(s):Gábor Marosvölgyi
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Visual Arts
- Page Range:143-168
- No. of Pages:26
- Summary/Abstract:Throughout history the arts in Hungary have been enriched by the contribution of many nationalities. Their works were partly rooted in the given conditions of the Carpathian Basin, and then became formative of later arts. This is true even of masters who were invited to our country or who were only travelling through. Their works of art, which had been transplanted from foreign countries, took root in our soil, even if they did not spring directly from the Hungarian spirit. This is why we prefer to speak of art in Hungary rather than Hungarian art, during the medieval and early modern period.
- Price: 4.50 €
Eight Centuries of Our Literature
Eight Centuries of Our Literature
(Eight Centuries of Our Literature)
- Author(s):Géza Vasy
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Hungarian Literature
- Page Range:169-200
- No. of Pages:32
- Summary/Abstract:Why is the oldest surviving fragment of Hungarian literature only 800 years old? After all, scholars have discovered that the Hungarian language became independent about three thousand years ago, and it was clear that already then myths, legends, tales, and songs existed in the language. It was a long road, however, that led to a writt en literature. We have only traces of ancient poetry – to which writt en allusions were made later – but no original texts have survived. And even when we consider the 800 years of writt en literature in Hungarian, it was only later – with the advent of the Enlightenment and, even more so, the Romantic period – that this extremely rich material, the surviving ancient poetry, which had presumably changed a great deal compared with the original, was collected, recorded, and integrated into the literary culture.
- Price: 4.50 €
Five Centuries of Th eatre
Five Centuries of Th eatre
(Five Centuries of Th eatre)
- Author(s):Tamás Tarján
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
- Page Range:201-218
- No. of Pages:18
- Summary/Abstract:The start of Hungarian-language theatre is open to debate. Traditionally, it has been considered to begin in 1790. Th e classic three-volume scholarly series Th e History of Hungarian Theatre [Magyar színháztörténet; first volume published in 1990] starts in 1790, but even before 1790, thousands of theatrical performances – or something resembling theatre – took place in Hungary. In the 200 to 250 years before 1790, theatre performances showed signs of aesthetic planning and at least partial institutionalization. Th ey were held in theatres – or places similar to modern theatres, with plans to build proper theatres in the works.
- Price: 4.50 €
Hungarian Music
Hungarian Music
(Hungarian Music)
- Author(s):Zoltán Falvy, Béla Szilárd Javorszky
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Music
- Page Range:219-244
- No. of Pages:26
- Summary/Abstract:Other than brief observations that appeared in a few chronicles, such as those concerning the siege of Kiev when Nestor wrote that the Hungarians conquered the city with song, or Ekkehard’s report from the age of raids (the 9th and 10th centuries) that the horns of war called the Hungarians to battle from St. Gallen, there is no credible information on our ancient musical world. Th e Hungarian tribes that approached the Carpathian Mountains, together with the Kabars, encountered the customs and rites of the Eastern Church through their contacts with Byzantium. Vocal and notated codices of the Byzantine liturgy in the centuries when the Hungarian state was established, however, have not survived. Th e fi rst Christian king of Hungary, Saint Stephen, turning to Catholicism, furnished books containing liturgical customs, including codices with musical notation to every ecclesiastical centre, including the Mount Márton Benedictine monastery of Pannonhalma. The Hungarian centres quickly learned the Gregorian chants that accompanied the Western rites.
- Price: 4.50 €
Our Language of Movement
Our Language of Movement
(Our Language of Movement)
- Author(s):Ferenc Novák
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
- Page Range:245-258
- No. of Pages:14
- Summary/Abstract:There are three important branches of Hungarian dance today: classical ballet, folk dance, and contemporary dance, as the independent companies identify themselves these days. We can approach Hungarian dance from several points of view. Th e question can be raised, for instance, whether the little groups that went from castle to castle in the Middle Ages to sing verse chronicles, if included a pantomime artist or dancer, could be considered to be related to the art of dance.
- Price: 4.50 €
Chronicle of Hungarian Film
Chronicle of Hungarian Film
(Chronicle of Hungarian Film)
- Author(s):László Kelecsényi
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:259-276
- No. of Pages:18
- Summary/Abstract:Films were shown as far back as 1896 in Budapest at the millennial celebrations of the Conquest of Hungary. The Lumière brothers filmed those celebrations and showed them in the special hotel auditorium to an audience that had been recruited for the occasion. The first Hungarian film, A tánc [The Dance], was made in 1901 and consisted of 27 very short episodes. Th e dances were shot with a rudimentary motionless camera, and featured some of the most popular actors of the day.
- Price: 4.50 €
Hungarian Photography Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Hungarian Photography Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
(Hungarian Photography Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow)
- Author(s):Károly Kincses
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Visual Arts
- Page Range:277-294
- No. of Pages:18
- Summary/Abstract:The history of Hungarian photography is similar to that of our neighbours. Its local value is quite important, at times overvalued, but it hardly attracts interest at the international level. This is the same with most countries, from the Czech Republic to Great Britain, from the US to Japan. But just as every nation has a golden age or two, Hungarian photography had an outstanding period, which began with the mid-1920s and lasted for more than a quarter of a century. Th is was the period when suddenly – out of the blue, as it were – Hungary produced great and outstanding personalities who had a decisive influence on world photography. It is not certain that the world considers all of the following to be Hungarian; but we do embrace André Kertész, Brassaï, László Moholy-Nagy, Robert Capa and his younger brother, Cornell, Martin Munkácsi, Éva Besnyő, Ata Kandó, Paul Almásy, György Kepes, Ergy Landau, Stefan Loránt, and another dozen wellknown photographers as one of us, without any nationalistic overtones.
- Price: 4.50 €
Science and Technology
Science and Technology
(Science and Technology)
- Author(s):István Gazda
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:295-316
- No. of Pages:22
- Summary/Abstract:Hungarians who settled in the Carpathian Basin must have possessed thorough knowledge of various branches of technology, as evidenced by the technical vocabulary that turns up in the earliest written records. Those who settled here had thorough and practical knowledge of several areas of life, such as animal husbandry, livestock breeding, construction of housing, leatherwork, the cultivation of grains, tool- and weapon-making, archery, tailoring, and ornamental metalwork (for example, the early minting of coins, in which the Hungarians decorated the coin’s edge with a row of fi ne dots as a defence against counterfeiting). An early Hungarian invention was the pivoting front axle of a cart, which rendered it capable of turning easily. This wagon, suitable for transporting people and light loads, was already recorded as a Hungarian coach [kocsi] in 15th-century descriptions of Europe.
- Price: 4.50 €
Forward, Hungarians!
Forward, Hungarians!
(Forward, Hungarians!)
- Author(s):József N.Pál
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:317-334
- No. of Pages:18
- Summary/Abstract:“Hungary is a great power in sport.” These words so dear to Hungarian sports lovers were first spoken almost a hundred years ago at the General Assembly of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held in Stockholm in 1922. The representative of one of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy’s successor states, Czechoslovakia, felt it unjust that Hungary – a country that had been reduced to one-third its size by the Peace Treaty of Trianon – should be granted two seats (filled by Count Géza Andrássy and Gyula Muzsa) at the IOC, the same as the “great powers”. The Swedish heir to the throne – president of the council – replied: “Hungary’s territory is indeed small, but in sport it is a great power.” We Hungarians were truly fl ag-bearers of the Olympic movement. We were the fi rst to form a national Olympic committee (the predecessor of the Magyar Olimpiai Bizottság or MOB [Hungarian Olympic Committee, HOC]), as early as December of 1895. In Paris in June of 1914, world public opinion in sport found it natural to grant the right to organize the 1920 Olympic games to the Hungarian capital. But Franz Ferdinand was assassinated a few days after that decision. Hungary, defeated in World War I, was even barred from the Olympics of 1920. But we didn’t give up: we tried to att end no less than seven times!
- Price: 4.50 €
Become what you are!
Become what you are!
(Become what you are!)
- Author(s):Endre Miklóssy
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Philosophy, History of Philosophy
- Page Range:335-350
- No. of Pages:16
- Summary/Abstract:The basic diff erence of our language – and our entire mode of thought determined by it – has not made it easy for us to fit in the European cultural sphere. The problem dawned on us only gradually, although our 17th century Cartesian teacher, János Apáczai Csere, sensed something of this. Descartes, for example, won him over not only by the content of his thought, but also by his daring to break the several centuries-old convention of Latin in order to philosophise in French. That is why Apáczai Csere started to “magyarise” Latin words in the interest of “Hungarian philosophy”. Th is was not a success.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Culture of Everyday Life
The Culture of Everyday Life
(The Culture of Everyday Life)
- Author(s):Noémi Saly
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Cultural history
- Page Range:351-370
- No. of Pages:20
- Summary/Abstract:Write about everyday life? All right, but whose? A man’s? A woman’s? A small child’s? Where? In the villages, in the small towns, in Budapest? And what about Monday or Saturday? Winter or summer? Since this is an impossible task, I will arbitrarily choose a bourgeois family, not overly wealthy (for simplicity’s sake, my own), which can be considered average in many respects. I describe how this family lived in Budapest in the 20th century: well at times, and not so well at others, but always in accordance with certain unwritt en rules. And since these rules still stand, at least in part, to this day (where would we be without them?), it won’t hurt to share them with those who have diff erent customs, or who are trying to survive without rules.
- Price: 4.50 €