Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1985 (13. évfolyam, 43-46. szám)

1985 / 43-44. szám

Miklós Kontra (Kossuth L.U.) prepared the following summary statment: The Project on Hungarian-American Bilingualism in South Bend, Indiana began in 1980. About 120 hours of tape recorded Hungarian and English speech was obtained by August 1981. The second phase of the project, i.e. transcribing the Hungarian tapes, typing the transcripts and preparing the corpus for computerization, was completed on December 1,1984. The Hungarian corpus is about 3,200 typed pages. Throughout the typescripts differences between American-Hungarian and Standard Hungarian usage are indicated and places on the tapes are also given so that researchers may easily locate the relevant parts on the taperecordings as well. A copy of the typed Hungarian corpus and a copy of the recordings is available for bona fide researchers at the Linguistics Institute, HAS, Budapest. The HSN has reported on South Bend-related publications by Kontraand Gregory L. Nehler (Indiana U.) in earlier issues. See: HSN nos. 26-7; 31/32-9; 38-Ö; and 39/40-8. □

MEETINGS

The International Association of Hungarian Studies (see: HSN no. 16, p.14; no.17, p.6; and no.25, p.6) will hold its second congress in Vienna, September 1-5, 1986. The congress will be hosted by the Finno-Ugric Institute of the University of Vienna and the Austrian East and Southeast European Institute. Major themes will focus on interaction between cultures in the Danubian Valley in the areas of Hungarian language, literature, history, and ethnography, during the 18th to 20th centuries. Selected areas of concern are: (1) cultural pluralism with special respect to the role of the cities of Budapest and Vienna; (2) nationalism and literature; (3) changes in social structure, the rise and demise of folk cultures; (4) folk art as the originator of “national culture;” (5) trends in art and literature; and (6) the role of linguistics in the development of cultures. The official languages for lectures are Hungarian and German, for discussions also English, French, and Russian. Those interested, please, write to Österreichisches Ost-und Südosteuropa Institut, A-1010 Wien, Josefsplatz 6, Austria. Telephone: 52-18-95. Ö

Rusticus: Verbal and Pictorial Images of Medieval and Early Modern Peasants is the titles of a conference to be held by the Committee for Medieval Studies of the U. of British Columbia and the Interdisciplinary Workshop for Peasant Studies, in mid-November 1986. Interest in the topic was generated by the realization that peasants rarely appeared in their own right in the written or pictorial records before the 13th century. Only outsiders produced “literary” or “artistic” images of them. Except as the occasional object of charity, rustici do not feature in early medieval texts, paintings or sculptures. Considering the relative novelty of the topic, an invitation is hereby issued for proposals for papers, preferably with a 100-150 word summary and a short vita, as soon as possible. Please, contact J.M. Bak, Dept, of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1W5, Canada. □

A symposium on Hungarians in the U.S.: population figures and social structure was held at Indiana U. in October 1984. Organized by the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and the Hungarian Chair in the Dept, of Uralic and

NO. 43-44, SPRING-SUMMER 1985 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

Altaic Studies, it was chaired by György Ra'nki. The keynote address was delivered by Julianna Puskas (HAS) on population figures and a statistical analysis of these figures. Other papers were given by András Ludanyi (Ohio Northern U.) and Steven B. Vardy (Duquesne U.) The emphasis of the symposium was on the discussions generated by the papers and the exchange of information and insights. It was generally agreed that more research needs to be done on the post-1945 immigration, and that statistical data presented by Puskas seemed to be a good starting point. Participants included visitors from Hungary, scholars from domestic institutions, as well as faculty and students of Indiana U. (E.M. Basa) □

The Duquesne History Forum (Pittsburgh, November 7-9, 1984) included several papers on Hungarian topics. Julius Nyikos (Washington and Jefferson Coll.) presented an analysis of black humor in “anti-Nazi jokes: as an unrecognized form of resistance” within the section on Domestic and International Resistance to Nazism. In the section on Case Studies in the Transferral of Ideas, chaired by Michael Sozan (Slippery Rock U.), Enikő Molner Basa (Library of Congress) spoke on “Zrinyi’s epic, A szigeti veszedelem and the Turkish wars,” emphasizing Zrinyi’s patriotic purpose in the retelling of his famous great-grandfather’s deeds. Zrínyi created a classical epic that retold events accurately and focused them to carry the poet’s message: if Hungarians would unite and defend their land as bravely as Zrínyi has done, they could havedriven theTurksfrom Hungary without Habsburg assistance.

In the section on “Hungarian statesmen of destiny,” chaired by Géza Jeszenszky (Hungary, and the U. of California, Santa Barbara) Paul Bó'dy(Urban Redevelopment Authority, Pittsburgh) presented a study on the achievements of Baron Joseph Eötvös; János Decsy (Greater Hartford Coll.) detailed the accomplishments of Count Gyula Andrássy; and Gabor Vermes (Rutgers U., Newark) analyzed the conservatism of Count István Tisza. Thomas Szendrey (Gannon U.) as commentator pointed to the common traits of these statesmen whose goals were similar in spite of differences in methods and backgrounds. (E.M. Basa) □

The Discussion Group on Hungarian Literature of the Modern Language Association organized a session on Georg Lukacs at the centennial conference of the MLA in Washington, D C. (December 28, 1984). The session was chaired by Thomas Mark (Colorado St. U.) Papers were presented by Eva Corredor (U.S. Naval Academy) on “From Lukacs to Posthistoricism,” Steven C. Scheer (St. Meinrad Coll.) on “Deconstructive Moves in the Lukacsian Text,” and Anna Katona (Coll, of Charleston) on “Georg Lukács’ Rejection of Dickens.” Following the session and the election of a new board member, plans were made for the 1985 meeting to be held in Chicago. With the cooperation of the European Division of the Library of Congress, a display of current Hungarian, German, and French literature, and selections from the works of Lukács held by the library was presented. The program coordinator was Enikő Molnár Basa. (E.M. Basa) D

Maxim Tabory of Kinston, N.C., organized and led a workshop on “Poetry and other Arts” at the Southern Unitarian- Universalist Summer Inst, held at Radford U., Virginia. The works of various Hungarian poets were presented in translation and in readings, musical settings, and other media during the conference and the workshop. (E.M. Basa) □

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