A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 50. (2011)

TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNY - PORKOLÁB Tibor: Lévay, a dicsszónok

Lévay, a dicsszónok 409 június 5-én.) AkadémiaiErtesítőYX, 321-322. 1908 Beszéde Lászlófalván 1908 november 8án Egressy Gábor emléktáblája leleplezésén. Akadémiai ÉrtesítőXlX, 626-627. 1909 A Múzsa búcsúja. Költemények. Budapest. 1919 Feljegyzések életemről. Akadémiai ÉrtesitőXXX, 5-16. 1925 Utolsó versei 1909-1918. Kiadta Voinovich Géza, Budapest. 1935 Visszatekintés. Kiadta Balázs Gy., Miskolc. 2001 Szentpéteri üres fészek. Lévay József naplója (1892-1917). I—II. Szerk.: Porkoláb T„ Miskolc. MIKLÓS Róbert 1978 Lévay József életútja. Borsod-Miskolci Irodalomtörténeti Füzetek 11. Miskolc. SZŰCS Sámuel 2003 Naplói. I—II. Kiadta Kilián István, Miskolc. VADNAY Béla 1921 Lévay József és kortársai. Budapest. VADNAY Tibor 1912 Lévay József arcképe. Ünnepi szónoklat, melyet Lévay Józsefnek, koszorús költőnknek, Borsodvármegye aranytollú főjegyzőjének és nyűg. alispánjának a vármegye tanácsterme részére Stettka Gyula festőművész által megfestett arcképe ünnepélyes leleplezése alkalmával Dr. Vadnay Tibor vármegyei főjegyző az 1912. évi szeptember hó 10-én tartott évnegyedes rendes közgyűlésen elmondott. Miskolcz. ZSIGMOND Ferenc 1906 Lévay József élete és költészete. Budapest. LÉVAY, THE LAUDATORY ORATOR Keywords: remembrance speech, remembrance ode, commemorational rhetoric, oratorical competence József Lévay often appeared with speech and ode, like as rhyming memorial speech, on the commemoration events, which refreshed the remembrance of "the great people of the nation". The researchers have not studied the huge quantity of this corpus text up till now. This study surveys the activity of Lévay from the hundredth anniversary of Kazinczy in 1859 to the old Lévay's commemoration appearances in detail. On the basis of the survey we can say that the excellent orator, Lévay appeared with great intensity and commitment on the official commemoration events in the end of the 19

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h century and the first decades of the 20

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h century. He tried to contribute to the cults of his former colleagues and friends with his speeches and poems consequently. The great representative persons of the classic era of the Hungarian literature passed away one after the other so he became the last man of the legend time and could satisfy the increasing requests to act as a laudatory orator. The ancient poet became the "patriarch" and "living monument" of the Hungarian poets and it was together with the charge of elocution. The influential public institutes (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, The Kisfaludy Society), which controlled the common remembrance, asked Lévay to renew the memory of the "Greats" and to help transmitting of the glorious traditions of Hungarian literature for the future symbolically. It was his privilege and obligation. The focus of Lévay's life work was these speeches and poems. His commemoration texts are masterpieces, in which the author used the formalistic tongue of the commemoration with experience. This formalistic tongue formed by the middle of the 19

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h century and became empty by the beginning of the 20

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h century. These speeches and poems are not only worth of studying as an oratorical performance, but they throw light on the work of the common remembrance, the literary, and the political cults. Tibor Porkoláb