Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1981 (9. évfolyam, 27-30. szám)
1981 / 29. szám
AlU / VII AM€RICAN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER BOOKS Sugar, Peter E., ed. ETHNIC DIVERSITY AND CONFLICT IN EASTERN EUROPE. American Bibliographical Center - Clio Press, Riviera Campus, 2040 Alameda Padre Serra, Box 4397, Santa Barbara, CA 93103, 1980. 553 pages. $27.50 cloth. Published on behalf of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council’s Joint Committee on East Europe Publication Series no. 8. A volume on East European ethnicity and ethnic groups has long been overdue. These essays, then, are of major interest to social scientists and East European specialists. Four of the ten chapters were written by political scientists, who tried to define ethnicity and the forces which bring it into being and make it into a common belief of an ethnic group. The authors of the volume relate the phenomenon to the dynamics of language, economy, religion, social structure, and state policy, as well as to the concepts of nationalism and ethnonationalism. Two of the essays rely heavily on Hungarian data. One is by Tamás Hofer on “The Ethnic Model of Peasant Culture: A Contribution to the Ethnic Symbol Building on Linguistic Foundations by East European Peoples.” He emphasizes the study of folk traditions, the strongest contributor to ethnic selfidentity, as an independent scientific endeavor, and presents a historical development of the discipline to date. He states that folk traditions and their study were instrumental in the development of most national movements. The other essay with strong Hungarian data source is that of Julius Rezleron “Economic and Social Differentiation and Ethnicity: The Case of Eastern Europe.” He draws parallels between the social-historical development of ethnic groups and other social institutions such as class, concluding that “ethnic consciousness usually prevails over class identity.” The editor is prof, of history of the U. of Washington Thernstrom, Stephan, ed., HARVARD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN ETHNIC GROUPS. Harvard U. Press, 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138,1980. xxv +1076 pages, maps, biblios. $60.00 cloth. This reference book is the only work of its kind, setting forth the origins, characteristics, and current situation of some 106ethnicgroups in the U.S. Written by 120 American and European scholars, it is a handbook of the American people from colonial times to the present. Thematic essays on subjects such as assimilation, intermarriage, education, and folklore precede chapters on each of the ethnic groups. The Hungarian chapter was written by Paula Benkart (St. Joseph’s Coll., Pennsylvania) on pages 462 to 471. After giving a brief historical background of the Hungarian people, she discusses migration, arrival, settlement, economic life, social structure and organization, family and kinship, behavioral characteristics, language, religion, education, politics, intergroup relations, and group maintenance. In the first NO. 29, AUTUMN 1981, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER appendix, Charles A. Price discusses the complex and controversial methods for estimating the size of groups. Appendix 2 reproduces, in facsimile, various census and immigration materials, beginning with the first survey of the foreign-born conducted in the U.S. in 1850. The editor is prof, of history at Harvard U. and director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. He was assisted in this monumental work by Ann Orlov, managing editor, and Oscar Handlin, consulting editor. COLUMBIA DICTIONARY OF MODERN EUROPEAN LITERATURE.,2nd ed., Jean-Albert Bedé and William Egerton, eds. Columbia U. Press, 136 South Broadway, Irvington, NY 10533, 1980. 800 pages, illus. $50.00 cloth. The revised and enlarged second edition of this encyclopedic Dictionary contains 1853 articles on European authors and literature of 33 languages. Each article provides basic biographical data about the writer, a critical discussion of his principal works, and a bibliography. The latter is particularly important for those who are not specialists in the literature to which the writer belongs. Special attention is paid to the available English translations of each writer’s work. In addition, there are survey articles on national literature with cross-references to the articles on individual authors. The rather lengthy article on 20th century Hungarian literature is accompanied by analytic articles on over 30 Hungarian writers. The editor of the Hungarian section was George Gomorl (Cambridge U.), who also contributed the essay on Hungarian literature as well as a number of individual appraisals. Other Hungarian contributors were István Siklós (London), Paul Varnai (Carelton U.), and Ivan Sanders (Suffolk County Comm. Coll.) (I. Sanders) Dezső, L(ászló) and W(illiam) Nemser, eds., STUDIES IN ENGLISH AND HUNGARIAN CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1980. 590 pages, tables, diagrams. $50.00 cloth. Though English has been taught in Hungary for decades, “the lack of specialists in English linguistics and the teaching of English as a foreign language remained the most conspicuous weakness in the Hungarian linguistic scene.” This respectable volume offers a collection of studies which should assist in rectifying some of the shortcomings. The history of this development goes back to the efforts of John Lotz who succeeded in “offering a perspective on Hungarian from a contrastive point of view.” He initiated the Working Papers series, which were shortly followed by William Nemser’s survey of Hungarian-English contrastive research in the U.S. (see HSN no. 3, p. 5). This volume which contains 15 essays and was written for Hungarian teachers and learners of English, also suggests useful predictions concerning the learning of Hungarian by English students. Five of the studies are devoted to non-finite constructions and subordinate clauses; another to medial and causative verbs (Continued on Page 2)
