A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Ethnographica 5. (Szeged, 2005)

Szűcs Judit. Maszlag János (1883–1966) öreg halász életrajza

The Biography of János Maszlag (1883-1966), an Old Fisherman by JUDIT Szűcs János Maszlag, a fisherman from Csongrád, began to write his memoir in 1962. (In this case, both biography and memoir refer to the same genre.) He kept his records in a notebook with hard cover and lined pages. In the notebook he marked and wrote 120 pages. The book is preserved in the local museum at Csongrád, however, its typewritten text is available also in the archives of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. The composition of folk or peasant memoirs became popular in many different versions in the middle of the 20

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1 century, namely in the 1950s and 1970. Academic researchers often contributed to the birth of this kind of texts. Moreover, this topic was part of several applications at museums and on anniversaries. Selections from the most successful compositions were published in different volumes. János Maszlag also completed his memoir due to outer encouragement. His text is published for the first time in its full content, certainly after the usual corrections and editorial work. The editor of the text compiled and attached János Maszlag's complete biography based on his own memoir and other sources (mainly on the data provided by his youngest daughter) to the introductory part of the edition. From the fisherman's memoir, the character of a man who chose and took on his occupation following family tradition and brought up eight children with loving care in his family may be outlined. The character of a man who supported the town museum working in the friend circle of the museum as the only physical worker among the intelligentsia is also revealed. The memoir as a composition can be divided into two main topics, one of them being fishing, the other is János Maszlag's army days, the time of war and captivity. He writes about fishing and his family life on pages 1-37 and 47-73. He describes his life in the army after 1904 on pages 38-46. Then on pages 74-120 he gives a report of the events happened on the east front line between 1914 and 1917, together with his captivity in Russia, and of the hardship of arriving home. This memoir may be used as research source for ethnographers, folklorists, as well as for researchers studying fishing, social structures or military history. Compared to the widely known records about fishing, János Maszlag's memoir reflects the life of later generations telling about the speeding changes of life taking place at the beginning of the 20

lh century. Compared to other diaries and memoirs written during the First World War, János Maszlag's text reflects a resourceful and originative man, who watched his environment very carefully, bringing a new color and tone to his memoir. The published text may be considered as useful source also for linguists and cultural anthropologists. 120