Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1983 (11. évfolyam, 35-38. szám)

1983 / 38. szám

ARTICLES 6 PAPERS

Balitas, Vincent D. and Zoltán Aba'di-Nagy, eds. American Literature in Hungary: A Selection of Critical Essays by Hungarian Americanists. John O’Hara Journal 5:1-2 (Winter 1982/83) 72-131. $12.00 paper.

Nearly half of this issue reflects on the intensive interest in, and knowledge of American literature and society in Hungary. More than one third of the essays are devoted to this theme. The Hungarian section is introduced by the two editors. One essay deals with the reception of American belle-letters in Hungary by László' Orsza'gh, (Kossuth L.U.), the otheron the history of American studies at the Kossuth L.U. by István Pálffy (Kossuth L.U.). The other six essays of the Hungarian section constitute a series of critical writings in their authors’ interest area. Most of the writers were ACLS supported scholars. The essays were as follows: Ironic Historicism in the American Novel of the Sixties by Aba'di-Nagy (Kossuth L.U.); Ethnic Criticism and Ethnicity in American Literature by Jo'zsef Gellen (Kossuth L.U.); Rebellious Drama and Intermedia by Zoltán Szilassy (Kossuth L.U.); Two Twentieth Century Epic Writers: Whitman and Eliot by Enikő'Bolloba's (Eötvös L.U.); Appearance and Reality in the Later Works of Henry James by Aladár Sarbu (Eötvös L.U.); and the Black Aesthetic and the Domino Principle by Zsolt Virágos (Kossuth L.U.).

We regretfully noted that this was the concluding issue of the American O’Hara Journal, which started publishing somefouryears ago. The journal provided an opportunity to critics and scholars to publish their thoughts on O’Hara’s life and work. “The death of one journal often, literary history tells us, signals the birth of another" says Balitas. Watch for the appearance of the Nightbird Review. □

Dómján, Evelyn (Alexandra). PÁRTA, THE CROWN JEWELS OF THE VILLAGE; Hungarian Folk Art Coronets. Hungarian Folk Museum, 217 Third Street, Passaic, NJ 07055,1983. 24 pages, illus. N.p. paper.

This album-sized, generously illustrated folder describes Hungarian coronets (head-dresses) as symbols of local subcultural variations. E.g., a gold coronet made of ribbons on black velvet was worn by a bride on her wedding day, while a white beaded one was worn to pronounce the virginity of the bearer. The coronet is considered a precious personal property and is never sold. It is usually made by an older female member of the family or by a professional coronetmaker. The author describes the making of a párta, a skill which she acquired while in the field. She made a total of 20 coronets (listed in the folder). She was a student of Joseph Dómján at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. □

Kontra, Miklós’ “The Relation of Ljanguage] 1 Vocabulary to Ljang uage] 2: A Study of Hungarian-Americans” is one of 48 studies (pp. 523-540) included in the volume THE EIGHTH LACUS FORUM, 1981, ed. by Waldemar Gutwinski and Grace Jolly. Hornbeam Press, 6520 Courtwood Drive, Columbia, SC 29206. 1982. x + 549 pages. $10.95 paper.

The studies originated in papers presented at the 1981 congress of The Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States (LACUS), held at Glendon College of York U. in Toronto. Kontra’s paper is actually a report on the English and Hungarian vocabularies of informants as reflected in their responses to a picture association test. He concludes that immigrants and American-born speakers are fairly different in terms of vocabulary dominance: the former

NO. 38, WINTER 1983-1984, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

group with a dominance in Hungarian and the latter in English. The study is the product of the Project on Hungarian- American Bilingualism in South Bend, Indiana (1980), and enjoyed the support of Indiana U., Tulipános Lada, The Treasure Chest of Hungarian Culture, Inc., and the Linguistic Institute of the HAS. The author is on the faculty of the Kossuth L.U. □

Hofer, Tama's. “Cognitive Aspects of Peasant Livelihood in Hungary.” In Joan P. Mercker, Social Anthropology of Peasantry, Somaiya Publishing Co., 172 Naigaum Cross Road, Dadar, Bombay 14 DD, India, 1982; pages 191-203.

The author studied the inhabitants of the village of Ata'ny (in Northeast Hungary) to see how they “perceived and evaluated the peculiarities of their land, climate, plants, and animals, their own labor-power and that of their draft animals.” He found that other factors, such as the system of measures applied in the evaluation process, and the mode of “allocation of land, labor, time, food, fodder, and money” bore heavily on the lifestyle in which agriculturalists make their decisions and perform their work; so do skills and agricultural know-how as they are learned and passed down along the same line as material inheritance. On a more general level, he states that “the agricultural technology and system of management utilized in peasant farms served as a cultural idiom which distinguished peasants and nonpeasants,” and among peasants between landowner and landless strata. In Atány, as in other villages, the lifestyle of landowner peasants served as a model for most landless peasants, hence, there was an undisguised attitude of superiority among the landowner peasants toward the landless peasants, and an even stronger one toward the urban population. The author is head of the Cultural Anthropology Workgroup at HAS, author of many books and articles, among them (with Edit Fel) Proper Peasants; Traditional Life in a Hungarian Village. Chicago: Aldine, 1969. □

Rothkrug, Lionel, “Peasant and Jew: Fears of Pollution and German Collective Perception.” Historical Reflections 10:1 (Spring 1983) 59-77.

This study has only implicit Hungarian reference, but its frame of analysis discussing the German peasantry as a symbol of nationality might prove to be useful in the reconsideration of the historic role of the Hungarian peasantry. The author calls attention to the fact that “the status of peasants and people’s perception of them varied widely from place to place and from time to time.” Thus, peasants were perceived as subhumans before the 16th century, while during the past two hundred years Western intellectuals “compared the luxury and moral dissolution they perceived among the rich and well-born with honesty, industry, simple wisdom and loyalty thought to be incarnate in the man with the hoe.” But there were meaningful differences on the two banks of the Rhine. In the East, romantic nationalist writers invested the peasant with the spirit of ancient Teutons, making him the central symbol of Germanness and the backbone of German society. He was thought to embody virtues residing only in the German spirit. “Whereas, French literati remained content to project the virtues of the noble savage, a figure devoid of ethnic identity, on to their moral hero." The author is prof, of history at Concordia U. He is engaged in a major study of religious behavior and collective perceptions in the West since antiquity. □

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