Kerényi Ferenc szerk.: Színháztudományi Szemle 29. (Budapest, 1992)

IDEGEN NYELVŰ ÖSSZEFOGLALÓK

IDEGEN NYELVŰ ÖSSZEFOGLALÓK Anniversary I. 1 Ith November, 1991 marked the bicentenary of the birth of József Katona, 1791-1830, author of the Hungarian national drama, Bánk Bán. There was a scientific session in Kecskemét, the place of his birth, to commemorate the anniversary, that had been greeted by letters from ÁRPÁD GÖNCZ, President of the Hungarian Republic, and József Antall, Prime Minister of Hungary. Here we publish their message and the lectures given by twelve researchers. PETER NAGY, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who was the chairman of the meeting, recalled the scientific historical reception of the Hungarian national drama. He questioned the romantic commonplaces attached to the playwright's figure and drew attention to the lack of modern, up-to-date interpretations. LÁSZLÓ OROSZ spoke about József Katona's Personality. According to Jung's tipology, he declared the playwright an introvert character type, who gave up his literary career very early and became a succesful lawyer in his native town. To support this statement, he used Katona's poems and plays and the memories of contemporaries. Katona never corresponded. While writing his plays, he had been helped by his introvert character to depict people in existencial crisis. In his lecture, Historionic Act, Dramaturgy, Contemporary Drama and the Bánk Bán, ISTVÁN FRIED set forth the paradox that the playwright, who used to be an actor too, based the first draft of the national play on his direct experience in accordance with the given theatrical conventions in 1815. The final version is dominated by literary purpose, yet it preserves the power of the language and of creating the scenic image, the main merits of the first draft. The researcher proved this by the comparative method of drama and theatre criticism. LAJOS CSETRI spoke about The Sociological Aspects of the Problems in the Bánk Bán. He analysed the high level of the conciousness that characterised the playwright in handling the historical events of 13th century, that he depicted in his play. He gained his knowledge in the theory and philosophy of historiography during his law studies, and his thaughts aquired European perspectives with the anti-revolutionist views based on his experiences gained from the revolutions and the Napoleonic wars, which became more and more widespread after 1815. ANTAL WEBER spoke about the realtion between J

ózsef Katona and the 'Gothic' Literature. He did not use the latter term as Horace Walpole and his school did, but he interpreted it as a strong personal capacity for empathy to enter the spirit of history. TAMÁS BÉCSY reexamined the fifth act, which is most often argued about. He picked a quotation from this act as a title to his lecture Bánk "Stood as a Post". According to his theory of drama, the play is a conflict-play in the first four acts, it is transformed into a centre-oriented play in the fifth act, in which there are two centres: the King and the title-hero. This change of genre had caused the debates, which proved to be insoluble for