Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1986 (14. évfolyam, 47-50. szám)

1986 / 50. szám

published in French (1979), then in German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, and Japanese. Judit Stoffman lives in Toronto and is available for media interviews. Interested persons may call Janica Bearg, promotion manager at (416) 593-9602.

Linksz, Arthur, FIGHTING THE THIRD DEATH. The book can be obtained from: Dr. Julia F. Linksz, 35 East 84th Street, New York 10028,1986. 340 pages. $19.50.

Born in 1900 in a small town in Western Hungary, Arthur Linksz, M.D., is one of the foremost authorities in the field of color vision and is world renowned for his publications on optics physiology and reading disabilities. He is the author of more than 100 articles and five books each in his professional field.

His autobiography, Fighting the Third Death, was first published in 1977 in Hungarian underthetitle, Visszanézek... [Looking Back]. Now it is available in the English translation done by John J. Alpar, M.D. The book covers primarily the first 18 years of Linksz. Through his eyes, the reader sees the detailed recollections and interpretations in his memoirs as he recreates the mood of pre-World War I Central Europe, the socio-economic culture and psychological realities of the time. He is also able to oscillate in a remarkable manner between the past and the present and to bridge 60 and 70 years. His vignettes of family life, its images and the lives of the author’s ancestors, several of whom were rabbis, whose reputations were still alive as he grew up, provide a careful study of family tradition. (AJM)

Magocsi, Paul R. THE RUSYN-UKRAINIANS OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA: A Historical Survey, Second edition. Serviten Gasse5, Wilhelm Braumuller, 1092Wien, Austria. Distributed in North America by Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center, 355 Delano Place, Fairview, NJ 07022. No. 7 in “Bausteine zur Ethnopolitischen Forschung” series, 1985. 90 pages, maps, biblio. $9.75 paper.

According to the 1980 census, some 40,000 Rusyn- Ukrainians (Rutens) live in the far northwestern corner of what is today the Slovak Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia. The accurate account necessarily escapes the researcher, but some estimates are as high as 100,000. Their territory has come to be known as the Presov Region because the city of Presov (Eperjes) has served as the cultural center for the group at least since the 19th century. According to the study before us, there exists a large body of literature on many aspects of Rusyn-Ukrainian culture, including several important studies published in recent years. However, no general surveys exist. This study does not pretend to be comprehensive, but it does for the first time provide the reader with an introduction to the political, socioeconomic, and cultural history of the people and the historical relationship between Rusyn-Ukrainians and Hungarians.

The author is professor and Chair of Ukrainian studies, U. of Toronto.

Sárosi, Bálint. FOLK MUSIC: Hungarian Musical Idiom.

Budapest: Corvina, 1986. Trsl. by Maria Steiner. Poems and songs trsl. by Laura Schiff and J.E. Sollosy. 188 pages, illus., notes, subject and name indexes. $18.00 cloth.

The Hungarian radio has, since 1969 offered a weekly program on “Our Musical Vernacular.” In 1973 the radio

BOOKS (Continued)

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series was published in a book form and the material for the present English edition was selected from that book. Early scholars of ethnomusical interest were led by a desire to get to know the music rather than the culture. Ethnomusicology, as a discipline concerned with music as an oral tradition is a relatively recent discipline with emphasis in pre-notation music, and its relationship to culture. In Europe this music is usually kept in evidence as folk music although it is not simply the music of the “folk,” but comprises all that mankind has created in tonal culture aside from the written “classical” European music of recent centuries. The author divides his presentation into 66 brief topical units (e.g., “folk-music collecting,” “pentatonic scales,” “folk music and regions,” “today’s Hungarian musical vernacular,” “merry-making in tears,” etc.). The present volume makes no claim to serve scholarly research. It is not burdened with a detailed bibliography, though reference data of some basic works, which may serve as starting points for scholarly endeavor and which have frequently been referred to in these pages, are given.

DISSERTATIONS*

Novosel, Nicholas Ivan (Indiana U., 1986) “REGNUM REGNO: Croatia’s War Aims, 1914-1917.” 313 pages. Microfilm and xerox number DA 8617824.

Croatian war aims or national demands in 1914 - 1917, were based on the desire to improve Croatia-Slavonia’s national, political, and economic status within the Habsburg Empire. Political parties in Croatia focused on three main issues: economic emancipation from Hungary, the unification of all Croatian lands into a state body within the Dual Monarchy, and the relationship between the Croats and other Slavs of the Empire, namely Serbs and Slovenes. These aims reflected decades and even centuries of political and national struggles between Croats and their Hungarian and Austrian rulers. During the period under study, no political party advocated complete independence and/or separation from Austria-Hungary. Instead the Croats sought increased autonomy within some sort of enlarged Croatian kingdom. In some schemes this entity would include Slovenes and Serbs, who would have to accede to the Croats’ political dominance. However, these demands were opposed by ruling circles in both, Austria and Hungary, because the fullfilment of Croatia’s desires would disrupt the balance of power created by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867.

Popper, Steven Winthrop (U. of California, Berkeley, 1985) “The Diffusion of Process Innovations in Hungary.” 291

pages. Microfilm and xerox number: DA8610172.

The study examines the diffusion of innovations in several sectors of the Hungarian economy since the beginning of economic reforms in 1968. It probes the hypothesis that the institutions of an economic system may well affect such processes. Such systemic intrusions might be broadly defined as being of two basic types: Those which limit the de

"Abstracts are usually based on those published in Dissertation Abstracts International. Microfilm and xerox copies of the original full dissertation may be obtained, when indicated, from Xerox University Microfilm 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. When ordering use the number shown.

NO. 50, WINTER, 1986-1987, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER