Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1979 (7. évfolyam, 19-22. szám)
1979 / 19-20. szám
The nationalized East European film industry had produced some of the world’s best films since the end of the war and in recent years has received increasing recognition in the West. This book by two prominent Czech film critics, active for many years in East European film and now living in the U.S., offers a comprehensive historical survey of filmmakers and films produced in East European countries, except Albania. The work details the continuing “conflict between the potentialities of a publicly supported art (not dependent on the box office) and the limitations and interests of the political forces controlling state support.” It highlights the inevitably political role of film within the context of East European Socialist Realism: as an arm of state propaganda and as a voice of humanism and social criticism. The first section concisely summarizes the history of each of the countries’ film industries before 1945. The next three sections contain a chapter each on each of the countries, with more than fifty pages on Hungary, and divide the postwar era into three periods: “Hope and Reality,” “Degrees of Dissent,” and “The Possibilities of Art and the Art of the Possible.” (Peter Bell, U. of California, San Diego) Lundman, Bertil J. THE RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. Transl. by Donald A. Swan. International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics, Inc., P.O. Box 3495, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10017. 78 pages, illust., biblio. $2.00 paper. (No. 4 in the IAAEE Monographs series.) The author looks at the peoples of Europe from a biological point of view, somewhat at odds with the mainstream theory held by physical anthropology. Grouping people by racial characteristics has been a favorite occupation of natural scientists for quite some time until World War II when the question became highly politicized and when part-findings were used as bases for influential ideologies. The author tries to avoid the controversy by limiting his presentation to races and race relations dominant in Europe at the time of the industrial revolution. About Hungary he says it “is probably the most strongly racially-mixed land in Europe. However, it is predominantly East-Baltid — Carpathid in race with Dinarid strains in the western part of the country. In parts of the Pussta (sic) region of Hungary, we find rather strong Mongoloid strains.” And this is virtually all that he says about Hungarians. Though there is one reference to “Hungarian investigators” no Hungarian source is listed in the bibliography. The author is Assoc. Prof, of Physical Anthropology at the U. of Uppsala, Sweden, and author of a good number of books and articles. Molnár, Miklós, A SHORT HISTORY OF THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNIST PARTY. Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301,1978. 168 pages, biblio. $16.50 cloth. (A volume in the Westview Special Studies on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.) This scholarly study traces the history of the Hungarian Communist Party (HCP) from the earliest beginnings to the present day, describes its dynamics, structure, role, status, membership and leadership, and its relationship to mass organizations. It describes the long road of the party history from the clandestine years when it played the role, what the author calls a “counter-police" toward the authorities, “as a small group organized, but deprived of social coherence”, to 1948 when the party was a winner full of confidence, but still uncertain of its foundations, prone to violence, arrogance, and intolerance. Lacking popular support, the party draws its legitimacy from sources outside society, especially from ideology and history. As it is today, the HCP has few options other than to keep its power. One such option would be to “transform itself into a social democratic party ready to share power or play the role of a progressive force or both.” Such an alternative, however, is seen by the author as impossible in the contemporary Hungarian setting. The author is Prof, of History of International Relations and of Contemporary History at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, and at Lausanne U. He was editorin-chief of Irodalmi Újság. More, Sir Thomas (Saint Thomas More), A DIALOGUE OF COMFORT AGAINST TRIBULATION. Edited with introduction and notes by Frank Manley. Yale U. Press, 92A Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520,1977. 331 pages. $6.95 paper. The Dialogue takes place between two Hungarians around 1528, at the time of the Turkish threat to Buda. The entire book is deeply concerned with the plight of Hungarian Christians facing the Turkish challenge to their faith. More placed the dialogue in a Hungarian setting most likely as protection of himself and his family. Under this guise he is implying the threat to certain Christian doctrines and to certain Christians closer home, under the power of Henry VIII. The book has not been translated into Hungarian, yet. Sárosi, Bálint. GYPSY MUSIC. Budapest: Corvina, 1978. 287 pages, 8 color and 30 black and white plates, biblio, indices, list of place names. $16.00 cloth. The nature of Gypsy music has been an emotional and scientific subject of controversy for at least one hundred years. Does it exist at all, orareGyspies only interpreting the music of their host countries. If the latter, how do Gypsy musicians adapt themselves and their music, on the one hand, and what effect does their interpretation have on Hungarian music, on the other. If they have their own musical culture, how does one distinguish between Gypsy music and Gyspy interpretation? This volume tries to answer these questions by tracing the relevant literature, in the context of Hungarian musical tradition. Some 39 notes of most popular songs, illustrations, and a very useful list of place names in Hungarian and in the language of the successor state in which the community is situated, assist in making the reading of the book not only useful but enjoyable. Schmalstieg, William R. and Thomas F. Magner, eds., SOCIOLINGUISTIC PROBLEMS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, HUNGARY, ROMANIA AND YUGOSLAVIA. Slavica Publishers, P.O. Box 14388, Columbus, OH 43214,1978. 503 pages, maps, tables. $7.50 cloth, for individuals; $12.50 for libraries. This volume contains the papers of a conference on sociolinguistics in Eastern Europe, held at the Pennsylvania State U., in 1976 (see HSN no. 12, p. 7). It is a special issue of FOLIA SLAVICA, containing nine papers, three discussions of papers, and an introduction by the editors. The papers by Conrad C. Reining, Trond Gilberg, and Bela C. Maday are of interest to Hungarianists. Reining writes about The Rise and Demise of the German Minority in Hungary (pp.469-479). Based on a year-long field NO. 19-20, 1979, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER 5
