Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1983 (11. évfolyam, 35-38. szám)

1983 / 35-36. szám

INDEX FOR NUMBERS 1 THROUGH 30

A 30-page index of the HSN numbers 1 through 30 has been prepared and is now available in limited copies. It contains three lists of reference: a name index of some 2,000 entries, a list of 80 periodicals, and a list of some 150 organizations mentioned in the HSN. For copies send $6.00 to the Circulation Office, HSN.

BOOKS (Continued)

Social Science Monographs, Brooklyn Coll., distributed by Columbia U. Press, 562 West 113 Street, New York, NY 10025,1983. xviii + 264 pages, map. $25.00 cloth. The volume is part of several series. It constitutes no. 14 in the Brooklyn Coll. Studies on Society in Change; vol. 5 in the subseries War and Society in East Central Europe; and no. 126 in the East European Monographs series.

This is the first of several volumes dealing with World War I. It contains two sets of essays. One edited by Williamson concerns itself with the origins and aims of the war. It reiterates the importance of alliances, the place occupied by the decision-makers, the place of intellectuals in politics, and the place of organizations in the life of modern states. Contributors are Williamson (U. of North Carolina), Michael Palumbo (CUNY), William Jannen, Jr. (CUNY), and Paula Sutter Fichtner (CUNY).

The second set of essays discusses the treatment and manipulation of the over 2 million East European prisoners (mostly those in Russia). Edited by Pastor (Montclair St. Coll.), the essays discuss efforts toward enlisting prisoners of war against their own country, and investigate records of those who joined motivated by personal rather than by ideological considerations. Contributors to this section are Ivo Banac (Yale U.), Gerald H. Davis (Georgia St. U ), Rowan A. Williams (U.S. Naval Acad.), Josef Kalvoda (St. Joseph Coll.), and Arnold Krammer (Texas A&M U.).

Zwick, Peter. NATIONAL COMMUNISM. Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301,1983. 260 pages. $28.50 cloth; $12.00 paper.

This study examines the effects of national variations in communism and concludes that national sentiment is and always has been an inalienable element of communism. National differences on the various themes of communism are “neither aberration nor heresy” but rather a pragmatically accepted norm of Marxism-Leninism. The presence of national communism, therefore, does not indicate the decline or fall of Marxism-Leninism, its persistence signals inner vitality. Those in the West who support national communism do so because “they believe that national communism is a prelude to anticommunism.” That national communism equals liberalization is another common myth. While communism will become increasingly national in character, liberalization will continue to be perceived in Moscow as a threat to Soviet interests. “The real question is not whether communism will survive but how long the myth of communism as an immutable universal ideology that transcends national distinctions will persist.” It is worth noting that in the case of Hungary, the Kremlin blamed the Hungarian party for not recognizing national customs, traditions, and peculiarities, thus not creating a party that was sufficiently representing a Hungarian form of socialism. “The Kremlin wanted to evolve a policy that would combine, to the satisfaction of other socialist states, the right to develop national policies with the obligation of each party to a basic standard of communist behavior.”

The author is assoc, prof, at the Dept, of Policital Science, Louisiana State U.

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DISSERTATIONS*

Csicsery-Ronay, István, Jr. (Princeton U.) “The Realistic Historical Novel and the Mythology of Liberal Nationalism: Scott, Manzoni, Eötvös, Kemény, Tolstoy.” 364 pages. Microfilm and xerox no. DA8208540.

The study examines the relationship between the ideology of Liberal nationalism and historical realism through five realistic historical novels characteristic of the geographical and historical development of historical realism in Europe. Presented is a critique of George Lukacs’ The Historical Novel, arguing that his overemphasis of the “world-historical"and “world-literary” processes makes him ignore the importance of nationalism in the growth and decline of the realistic historical novel. Using Lévi-Strauss’ approach to the definition of myth and ideology, the author argues that the historical novel is the foremost expression of the Liberal nationalist myth of the reconciliation of opposing social factions in an ideal, quasi-utopian nation-state. The study further discusses the two autonomous provenances of historical realism in Europe: Walter Scott’s Waverly (1814), and Alessandro Manzoni’s I Promessi Sposi {1827; 1840-2). Two classic Hungarian novels are discussed as examples of the crisis in realism and nationalism around 1848: József Eötvös’ Hungary in 1514 (1846), as an example of the tendency toward abstraction and dramatic concentration in epic in a revolutionary period, and Zsigmond Keme'ny’s The Fanatics (1859), as an example of the collapse of realism ina period of anti-Liberal reaction. War and Peace (1863-9) is discussed as an example of the end of the realistic historical novel when the myth of the Liberal nation-state is no longer adequate for social conditions and is replaced by a mythology of cultural imperialism.

Novak, Emílián Erwin (U. of Dallas) “Providence and the West: The Hungarian Catalyst." 423 pages. Microfilm and xerox no. DA8213594.

The study introduces the reader to problems of cognition and the possibility of myths in Hungary between Mariannational Catholicism and global Communism, then discusses competitive cross-fertilization between East and West as a clue of universal history. This dialectic process serves progress via cyclic fulfillments of national histories as stepping stones. The Western posture is one of restlessness in freedom. It is essential that the political shell survive but also that pressure from the East push the West continually into innovative reactions and help to develop free science. Fighting both, inbred tyrants and outside powers, European cultures survive by continually revising their understanding of the human role, the world, and its Maker. Hungarians and Poles, using military prowness in the past, now rely on the love of religion and national freedon in building obstacles to Communism. Hungarian resistance assisted awakening the West, alienating the Left from the Kremlin and preserving Poland as the main Western mole in the Soviet domain. Elements of a preparatory stage in Hungarian culture are discussed anticipating as it were the epic battle. History develops at the clash of anti-polaristic fulfillments of its various value-system molds.

'Abstracts are usually based on those published in Dissertation Abstracts International. Microfilm and zerox copies of the original full dissertation may be obtained, when indicated, from Xerox University Microfilm 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. When ordering, use the number shown.

NO. 35-36, SPRING-SUMMER 1983 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER