Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1981 (9. évfolyam, 27-30. szám)
1981 / 29. szám
teaching, and service activities related to a better understanding of the peoples of the Great Plains. Arranged by the Center for Great Plains Studies at the U. of Nebraska, these symposia are planned to continue and are inviting relevant contributions. The essays, are prefaced and introduced by the editor, represent the best new writing on ethnic groups in the Great Plains states (the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas) by an interdisciplinary group of scholars. Some essays focus on cultural aspects of specific ethnic groups such as Amish, Czechs, Volga Germans, Hungarians, Indians, and Swedes; others represent a topical approach. The Hungarian Essay was written by Linda Degh (Indiana U.) on Folk Religion and Ideology, for Ethnic Survival: The Hungarians of Kipling, Saskatchewan. Kipling, situated on the Canadian extension of the Great Plains, is the largest and oldest rural settlement of Magyars in North America. They began to arrive early in the 20th century, and called their settlement Békevár (Bastion of Peace). Here, religion served as a cause of both, integration and strife. The original founders formulated an intensly pietistic -folk religion that rested on myths about the settlement’s founding and fostered the display of ethnicity. The second group was pro-integrationist and was basically opposed to the earlier group’s eclectic pietism. Degh concludes that orientation to heritage has an impact on the present; that homogeneity of an ethnic group can be eroded by seemingly trivial causes; and that religion can have a leading role in the formulation of ethnic group identity. The editor is prof, of history and geography at the U. of Nebraska. He is also author of three more volumes on the peoples of the Great Plains. Medyesy, Laslo M. EVOLUTION OF THE SOCIALIST “NEW MAN” IN HUNGARY; A Study of Political Socialization (1956-1975). Ungarisches Kirchensoziologisches Institut. Wien, Linzerstrasse 263/18. Austria 1140, 1980. 178 pages. N.p., paper. Most every society tries to develop an ideal “man” who would serve its collective objectives best. The “socialist man” is required to subordinate his individual interests completely to those of the collective, “to serve the world” as Marx said. Communist theoreticians contend that man can realize his full potential and full satisfaction only under socialism. In order to achieve this, socialism aims at having complete control of all means of socialization, especially of formal and informal education. The secularization and centralization of education has been going on historically since the Ratio Educationis of 1777 synthesized the prevalent pedagogical theories of its time and translated them into functional instruction all over Hungary. It treated all students as equals regardless of race, creed, or social status, as “citizens of a common country and subject to the same ruler.” Thus, the communists found a centralized system already established, which they expanded to control all facets of political socialization. The author discusses the methods and blue prints of indoctrination based on empirical data reflecting on the disparity between ideology and reality, as well as the interrelation between socialization and changes in social structure. He concludes that the success of raising a socialist man depends on the soundness of the new cosmology. If the theory proves to be sound, the “socialist man” will emerge. If not, the gap between theory and reality will widen to a point where the latter will prevail. The author is a fellow at Yale U. NO. 29, AUTUMN 1981, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER Nyerges, Anton N. BABITS AND PSYCHOANALYSIS CHRISTIANA. The author’s publication. 201 Langford Court, Richmond, KY 40475, 1981. 112 pages. N.p. (xerox). At the age of clashing ideologies, explosive demands for faster social and economic advancement, and more equitable distribution of wealth, moderation and calls for evolutionary balance are not highly popular virtues. “An approach to Babits (1883-1941) requires dimensions exceeding the subjectivism rampant in the written and visual arts of fragmenting societies. This does not mean he was an apostle of totalization — there is far too much evidence that he saw history as a compulsion to freedom as well as to coherence. Nor does it mean that he was an advocate of puritanism, which contemporary people fear even more than totalization; in fact, his lifelong erotic interests appear linked to the visual and tactile impressions, and even taste buds, of his boyhood in Szekszárd.” He belonged to the “Nyugat” generation, but unlike his contemporaries, he confessed to be a writer of "hymns” of eternal unsatisfaction,” not dissatisfaction. “While Babits’ mind is on a traditional Western restoration there is a strongly Eurasian coloration to this concept of an inherent balance toward which the universe is always working. So profoundly overlaid by Western culture are the writings of Babits that this Eurasian base has gone virtually unnoted.” The author gives an intimate characterization of Babits by projecting his work against nine conceptual themes or that many phases of his literary life. Psychoanalysis Christiana is a poem which serves as the title to this volume and is a testimony to his religious experiences. According to Pal Kardos, the religious outlook of Babits "has nothing to do with the pleasure principle or even sublimation. His is literally a Christian psychoanalysis that would overcome sin and bring the person to carve his own soul to perfection...” says the author. This volume is much more than a biography. It presents over 70 translations (mainly of poems) previously unpublished. A convenient list of poems in the original Hungarian and in English concludes the volume. The author is prof, at Eastern Kentucky U. Several of his previous books were reviewed in HSN nos. 6, 8, 12, and 26. Sanders, Irwin T., Roger Whitaker and Walter C. Biselle, comps , EAST EUROPEAN PEASANTRIES: Social Relations; An Annotated Bibliography of Periodical Articles, Volume 2. G.K. Hall, 70 Lincoln Street, Boston, MA 02111, 1981. 200 pages. $16.00 cloth. The compilers of this volume had been inspired by the recognition of the same need which motivated your editor to start publishing the HSN: the inaccessibility of relevant sources. Source material has been published in a wide variety of journals, in a score of countries, in a number of languages, and scattered throughout the holdings of a great many public and private libraries. To become aware of the existence of a relevant piece of writing has been a time consuming and tedious task often guided by chance. Thus, the compilers of this volume have rendered an immense service to the scholarly community by collecting copies of relevant periodical articles and publishing a bibliography of their holdings. This volume, as its predecessor (see HSN no. 12, p.2), is actually an annotated guide to the material available at the Mugar Memorial Library of Boston U. This second volume contains 850 entries of which nearly 100 are Hungary-related. Thomas Lay and Marida Hollos assisted in the preparation of the Hungarian entries. (Continued on Page 4) 3
