Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)
BOOK REVIEWS - Csaba Czeglédi: Endre Vázsonyi: Túl a Kacegárdán, Culmet-vidéki amerikai magyar szótár [Beyond Castle Garden: An American Hungarian Dictionary of the Calumet Region]. Edited and introduction by Miklós Kontra. A Magyarország-kutatás könyv-tára XV. Budapest: Teleki László Alapítvány, 1995. 242 pp
"borderline cases" includes Alice Adams, Toby Olson and Annie Dillard. Each writer in each chapter is introduced in a short biographical sketch, followed by an introductory piece based on the general characteristics of his/her art. Then works (usually a novel or a volume of short fiction, or both, when possible) considered highly characteristic of the author are discussed in detail. Abádi Nagy presents the reader with a convincing amount of primary material: 159 short stories and 10 novels by the sixteen authors —as listed above — are given thematic analyses in the successive three chapters. The author admits though how differently some other critics may make their own list of minimalists, the reader can feel safe: no work of real significance that has been associated with minimalism in these two decades is missing from this list. All this provides a solid foundation of primary works on which the author builds up the second, theoretic part of his book. "The World View of American Minimalism — The Characteristics of Minimalist Aesthetics and Philosophy" Abádi Nagy divides this part of his book up into four main chapters: 1/ 'The World View of Minimalism", 2/ "The Formal Characteristics of Minimalist Fiction", 3/ 'The Relationship Between Minimalism and Postmodernism", and 4/ "Conclusion and Definition". H0 1/ The chapter, 'The World View of Minimalism," is divided into two subchapters: 1/ "The Minimalist Interpretation of the Human Character," and 2/ "The Image of America in Minimalist Fiction." The American minimalist writer "returns to the world of reality, and portrays man directly taken out of it. The perspectives of the Universe, its deeper interrelationships are covered by the close-up of the man in the foreground" (221). What intrigues the author here is why American minimalist authors focus exclusively on the individual. 188
