Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1980 (8. évfolyam, 23-26. szám)
1980 / 26. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER No. 26 ISSN: 0194-164X Winter, 1980-1981 Published quarterly by the Hungarian Research Center of the American Hungarian Foundation: Winter, Spring (two numbers included), and Autumn. Founder and editor: Bela Charles Maday. Journal editor: Enikő Molnár Basa. Corresponding editor: Lorant Czigany (London). Communications concerning content should be addressed to the Editor, 4528-49th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20016. Communications concerning subscriptions, advertising, and circulation should be addressed to American Hungarian Foundation, 177 Somerset Street, P.O. Box 1084, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Annual subscription in the U.S.A. $4.00. Abroad: $5.00. Current single copy $2.00; back issues $2.50 each. BOOKS (Continued) and been accommodated in the socialist period. It analyzes the way in which a traditional peasant economy has responded to the imposition of collectivization, and also the effects which this collectivization has had on social and cultural life.” The scene of research, which the author has chosen after mastering the Hungarian language, is a community of some 2,000 people southeast of Kiskoros. The major portion of the study deals with the dominating role of the specialized cooperative (szakszövetkezet) which is quite unlike the production cooperative (termelő szövetkezet) inasmuch as it incorporates economically significant private land. The book concludes with a chapter on the interface of the cooperative and some traditional social units such as the household, the family, and with a discussion on changing values and norms. The author hopes that full collectivization will eventually come to Tázlár, because the present compromise underutilizes both, the land and its tiller on the tanya, it hinders desirable vertical social integration and it does not live up to ideological expectations. The author has gathered valuable data in regard to the functioning of grass-roots organizations in a socialist system, and on the transformation of a capitalist to a socialist structure. The author is affiliated with Cambridge U. Katona, Anna B. MIHÁLY VITÉZ CSOKONAI. Twayne Publishers (a division of G.K. Hall & Co.) 70 Lincoln Street, Boston MA 02111,1980.170 pages, illus., biblio. $13.50 in the U.S.; $15.50 abroad. Cloth.No. 579 in the Twayne World Authors Series; A Survey of the World’s Literature. This volume makes accessible to the English speaking reader the works of a poet little known outside the Hungarian language area. It is a critical-analytical discussion arranged by themes, and addressed to the average reader and to the scholar of comparative literature as well. To the latter, “Csokonai offers a key to the better understanding of problems involving the mixture of various cultures." “In his writings and language West-European refinement merged with the down-to-earth character of contemporary Hungarian letters and produced a poetry that in many of its aspects surprises us with its modernity.” Csokonai (1773- 1805) was a contemporary of the American Revolution, the French Revolution and the general atmosphere of the Age of Enlightenment. He adopted these ideas and adapted them to the intellectural and social environment of his native city, Debrecen. The author calls it “more than a geographical point on the map in eastern-most Hungary; Debrecen is a state of mind.” “Through links with Protestant churches and faculties of theology in Germany, Holland, and Scotland, Debrecen was more open to ideas from the West than most Hungarian communities.” The author devotes a chapter to each, to historical background, to Csokonai’s eclecticism, to his philosophy, and to his controversial political views, as well as to his love poetry. He died at age 33. The author is prof, of English at the College of Charleston. Kovács, Martin L. PEACE AND STRIFE: Some Facets of the History of an Early Prairie Community. Kipling District Historical Society, Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada SOG 2SO, 1980. (Area Studies no. 1.) 216 pages, illus., biblio. $14.00 paper. This is a partial history of Bekevar, a pioneering Hungarian settlement in the western part of Canada. Anthropologists and other social scientists have been at work in recent years in terms of “urgent anthropology” i.e. to preserve essential data before the ethnic characteristics of the area disappear in the tides of industrialization, urbanization, and migration. The national and local governments of Canada support such undertakings under the policy of multiculturalism. This volume, prepared by the author who initiated the Bekevar Team Research Program, is based on his own research and focuses on the Bekevar/Kipling community. It is designed to show how Bekevar, "an idyllic colony,” was initiated by Hungarian peasant immigrants (many from the village of Botrágy, Bereg County, nowU.S.S.R.) at about the turn of the century. It outlines the underlying qualities which contributed to its growing into a community, a culture center, and a bridge “between the old and the new as well as between the country and the town. Besides, the book is meant to illustrate and account for some of the forces which transformed Canadian Hungarian into Hungarian Canadian, and Bekevar into Kipling.” After a historical background sketch, the author describes some institutions of the early settlement, cultural life and customs, economic factors such as the impact of the railroads, and finally the human resources and their changing constellation. There are lists of names with comprehensive data about the Kipling area control and reference group, and families in the Bekevar community. Photographs take up about half of the volume and assist effectively in the sensing of the general atmosphere. The author is prof, of history at the U. of Regina. Közi-Horvóth, József. CARDINAL MINDSZENTY: Confessor and Martyr of Our Time. Trans, from German by Geoffrey Lawman. Foreword by Werenfrid Van Straaten. Augustine Publishing Co. (for Aid to Church in Need), Chulmleigh, Devon EX18 7HL, Great Britain, 1979.145 pages, biblio., illus. $3.00 paper. Cardinal Mindszenty’s historic role has inspired many a biographer and historian. Hence, accounts on his life abound mainly in religious and political literature. Here, the author presents a relatively brief but well documented biography which emphasizes highlights of the Cardinal’s life. Good biographies are written with due reference to the historical setting in which the person lived and with which he interacted. Mindszenty’s public life coincided with the dramatic changes his country and the world at large experienced. His life history provides insight into the forces, means, and consequences of those events, as seen through the eyes of a contemporary, who was a friend and comrade-in-arms of the Cardinal. NO. 26, WINTER 1980-19Ö1, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEW5LETTER 2
