Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1977 (5. évfolyam, 13-15. szám)
1977 / 15. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER BOOKS Vajda, Mihály ed. MODERN HUNGARIAN POETRY. Columbia U. Press, 562 West 113 Street, New York, NY 10025. 286 pages, portraits. $11.95 cloth. This collection of 191 poems by 41 contemporary poets largely grew out of the New Hungarian Quarterly. It presents a variety of modern poetic themes and expressions, and by including poets who were active in the early years of the century (Kassák, Füst) the spectrum is widened. Though they are not historical in basic character, they reflect the turbulent past. Comments on Hungarian history and literature given in the introduction illustrate this claim capably, as do the assessments of the talents and contributions of Illyés, Vas, Weörös, who seem to defy all “rules” and categories, and László Nagy and Ferenc Juhasz. Others are mentioned more briefly, to place a literary tradition or to point out an individual quality, e.g. István Csukás as a representative of the generation that grew up after World War II and János Pilinszky, a “modern Catholic methaphysical poet.” The most pervasive themes are loneliness, despair, and a sense of isolation. The futility of suffering isfound in many of the poems of the older generation often reflecting the war years. This voice was still heard in the early 1950s, occasionally with rebellious notes, e.g. Vas’s The Grand Finale; Kormos’s After Us; and Nagy's The Bliss of Sunday. Another well represented theme is the transformation of the rural way of life, a life experience of many of the poets themselves. Perhaps the most masterful expression of this process and its impact is Juhász’s The Boy Changed into a Stag, Criesoutat the Gate of Secrete. There are, however, playful poems on the beauty of life, of landscape, of special moments. All are intensely emotional, though the emotion may be expressed by a cool intellect. The translations, done by some twenty North American and British poets such as R. Graves, A. Dixon, T. Hughes, E. Morgan, W. Jay Smith, and K. McRobbie, reflect a variety of styles and genres, both, traditional and free verse, as well as experimental modes. The biographical notes give some useful information including lists of translations of the poets published in English. All of this seems to insure fulfillment of the hope expressed by William Jay Smith that these poems “of a rare beauty in the original [are] deserving of the best life they can be given in English.” Kann, Robert A., Béla K. Király, and Paula S. Fichtner eds. THE HABSBURG EMPIRE IN WORLD WAR I; Essays on the Intellectual, Military, Political and Economic Aspects of the Habsburg War Effort. East European Quarterly (Boulder, Colo.), Distributed by Columbia U. Press, 562 West 113 Street, New York, NY 10025.1977,347 pages. East European Monographs, No. XXIII. $14.00 cloth. This is the second volume in the Studies on Society in Change of Brooklyn College. It has three major parts, and in each at least one essay of Hungarian relevance. Most of the studies come from the proceedings of conferences sponsored by CUNY, but several contributions were written for this volume. In part one (Domestic Affairs) Gabor Vermes, Asst. Prof, of History, Rutgers U., describes in “Leap Into the Dark: The Issue of Suffrage in Hungary During World War I,” the effects of the electoral law of 1874, which tried to maintain the political and social statusquo, as against the effortsof the political “left” which fought for universal suffrage. The fight “could be regarded as the battle between those who were prepared to leap into the dark without realizing it and those who tried to believe that delaying or avoiding the plunge would somehow remove the precipice.” In part two (Military Affairs) Gunther E. Rothenberg, Prof, of Military History, Purdue U., has an essay on “The Habsburg Army in the First World War: 1914-1918,” with a content based largely on his book reviewed on page 4 of HSN no. 13. Béla K. Király, Prof, of History, Brooklyn Coll., has an essay on “Elements of Limited and Total Warfare,” dealing with grave problems related to the economic, political, and intellectual impact of war. Illustrationsare liberally used from the Habsburg history, concluding with observation on Europe’s slow drift into “suicide” in the interwar period. In part three (Intellectual Life) Eva S. Balogh, Asst. Prof, of History, Yale U., has an essay on “The Turning of the World: Hungarian Progressive Writers on the War.” Illustrating her essay with translated passages of relevant writings, the author concerns herself with the human aspects of war as expressed in poetry and prose by outstanding literary figures of the time, who first were war enthusiasts, “later passive and saddened observers, by the end of the war they became embittered critics. The war was indeed a ‘turning of the world,’ as Ady had declared__” Gadó, O. THE ECONOMIC MECHANISM IN HUNGARY. A.W. Sijthoff, 198 Ash Street, Reading, MA01867 (or P.O. Box 26, Lyden, The Netherlands) and Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1976. 203 pages, tables. $10.00 cloth. The new system of economic control and management introduced in 1968 experienced a revision in 1971. (See review of M. Timár’s book on page 3 of HSN no. 12.) Changing domestic policy and economic conditions outside of Hungary required further adjustments especially in the (Continued on page 2)
