The Hungarian Student, 1958 (3. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
1958-10-01 / 1. szám
Hungarian Youth and Western Culture By L. /{., a Hungarian student living in ISetc York It is unnecessary to emphasize the problem of Hungarian youth’s integration into Western culture. The desire for this integration existed unfulfilled for years. However, now that its satisfaction appears within reach, the tenacity of the desire appears threatened by the great difficulties which obstruct its realization. The Hungarian youth in this dilemma, of high school and college age, have inherited a basic cultural tradition. This tradition has undergone two decisive changes, one of them very fortunate, the other tragically unfortunate both in itself and in its consequences. The latter change is responsible for the immediate problem threatening any successful integration with the West. The basic cultural tradition inherited by Hungarian youth is characterized by the duality of Hungarian cultural and artistic life which existed until 1945. The two sides of the coin were the “official art,” accepted and supported by the State, and the “unofficial art,” whose existence and rights the State could not limit but nevertheless tried to reduce to a minimum of importance and effect. Official art was conservative and typically isolationist in attitude. Unofficial art, which in the field of literature won its first victories under the banner of the Nyugat movement, was avantgarde, and tried to establish a relationship with the arts and ideas of the West. These two cultural profiles were sharply differentiated, their heads back to back Janus style. A continuous battle raged between them in all fields, sometimes openly, sometimes undercover. The importance of this situation becomes evident when we realize that since education in Hungary was supervised by the State, both subject matter and method were selected by the sponsors of official art. The government, of course, also tried to prevent the spread of unofficial cultural viewpoints, and achieved this, for the most part, by means of a variety of political excuses and objections. The production of Bartok’s “The Miraculous Mandarine” was prevented for a long time, for example, and even in the early ’forties the museums still tried to ignore the existence of abstract and surrealist art. Schools taught the art and culture of the nineteenth century and ignored the twentieth, and thus avoided taking an open stand. This situation was improved in the mid-’forties, partly because of increased national resistance to Nazi political pressure and cultural ideology. It was at this time that a new, young, revolutionary generation of teachers appeared in the schools, all adherents of non-official art and schools of thought, all well informed and with a wide intellectual horizon. The schools’ spirit was reformed from within. At the same time there was also a significant increase in the private cultural undertakings aided by the government, which, for political reasons and never openly, supported this intellectual resistance. During World War II much was published in Hungary which could not have appeared in Italy, much less in Germany. Huxley, Mann and Wilder were all widely read. Their writings gave more than ideological support to unofficial art; they brought with them an atmosphere which encouraged Hungarian art to modern creativity. It was an atmosphere which encouraged the development of a new generation and the expanding of the country’s very palpable political and intellectual boundaries. Thus, by 1945 there was not only a thin layer of elite, but a whole generation which was imbued with the spirit of West European culture. This generation was ready to take over the intellectual leadership of the country whenever the moment came. And it did come. This was the first revolutionary change, and it was for the better. The duality of Hungarian intellectual life by and large disappeared, and the basic viewpoints of the schools and of the previously unofficial cultural attitude now coincided. Both viewpoints insisted, for example, that youth become familiar with the latest, most modern views. Schools, universities and art academies fruitfully cooperated, aiding each others’ work and applauding each others’ results. There were still differences, of course, but these coexisted within a newly-established equation whose premise was not questioned. On the whole this atmosphere, which brought October 1958 5
