Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Book reviews - Lehel Vadon: László Országh—Zsolt Virágos: Az amerikai irodalom története (A History of American Literature.)

LEHEL VADON ORSZÁGH LÁSZLÓ—VIRÁGOS ZSOLT: AZ AMERIKAI IRODALOM TÖRTÉNETE (A History of American Literature.) Budapest: Eötvös József Könyvkiadó, 1997. 394, [2] pp. László Országh's work titled Az amerikai irodalom története (A History of American Literature) published in 1967 represented a milestone both in Hungarian literary studies and in the development of American Studies in Hungary. It functioned as a significant step in the realization of a scholarly program outlined in the form of a manifesto titled Az amerikanisztika feladata Magyarországon (The Mission of American Studies in Hungary) in Angol Filológiai Tanulmányok (Hungarian Studies in English) in 1965. In his essay the "father of American Studies" in Hungary defined the most important tasks required for the establishment and development of high standard and professionally sound American Studies programs and research efforts. Professor Országh not only laid down the foundations of a new discipline, but he established a school along with creating a program whose crucial objectives he realized himself. One of these tasks included the compilation and publication of a scholarly work focusing on the history of American literature. This seminal effort not only marked a milestone in Hungarian book publishing, but it was a significant contribution both to Hungarian literature and culture. The fact that the book was written in an age when the contemporary political and scholarly establishment assigned the United States and the study of its culture and literature into the "tolerated" category of the infamous tripartite evaluation scheme ranging from "state supported" through "tolerated" to "forbidden" further reinforces the 231