The Role of the Review „Nyugat" in the History of Literary Translations
The review „Nyugat" has a leading role in the history of Hungarian literary translations – although this history has not been written yet. Without claiming that there is an evolution in the ideas concerning literary translations, the author shows the changes of attitude and concepts that led to the „Nyugat"´s project of retranslating works that had been translated before, mainly during the 19th century. The ar-ticle shows also the differences between the concepts of the main authors of the „Nyugat" itself, mainly Mihály Babits and Dezső Kosztolányi.
Among Friends Old and New
In a lecture that was first presented in April 2008, when Norman Manea was awarded the title doctor honoris causa of the „Babeş-Bolyai University" in Cluj, the author speaks about his connections to the culture of Central Europe. Central European identity, he argues, is a constantly dislocating identity – that is why Central European culture can be rediscovered as an inspiring context for authors in exile, like himself. The article speaks about the American reception of Central European literature, about the author´s lectures about such issues at the Bard College (The Neighbors of Kafka). The conclusion of the text shows the way the works of Paul Celan are connected to this type of Central European identity.
The Hungarian Reception of Romanian Literature
The author offers an analysis of the 150-year long Hungarian reception of Romanian literature. As only case studies and limited surveys of the field have been published so far, his study can be regarded as a preliminary outline of a comprehensive survey of the vast amount of Romanian literature in Hungarian translation. Historically, two main periods are distinguished: the first is 1820–1919 while the second covers the time from the Trianon Treaty to the present. The latter falls into three sub-periods: 1920–1948, 1948–1990, and 1990 to the present. The author is the first to survey and interpret the rich and va-ried Romanian area of Hungarian translation literature, and strongly emphasises that translations from the Romanian language constitute an important part of Hungarian translation literature in general.
Private Mythologies and the Poetry of the Streets
In a comparative analysis, the article speaks about the remarkable similarities between the attempts of the Hungarian authors from Romania whose debut volumes appeared between 1976 and 1983 (the so-called „third Forrás-generation") and Romanian authors who began to publish by the end of the seventies and appeared also in collective anthologies around the years 1982 and 1983 (the so-called „eightyism"). Both groups of authors had a deep interest for theory and for renewing the discourse of poetry. Their work was analysed mainly in the context of postmodernism, but in the case of the Hungarian authors also in the context of the (neo)avantgarde. The works of the Hungarian authors (like Géza Szőcs, Ferenc Bréda, Béla Cselényi a.s.o.) have a playful approach to a specific urban (and private) mythology. The Romanian authors have also a reflexive approach to literary production, but their programme includes also to get closer to everyday life and everyday realities, to produce „a literature of the streets".
„A New Voice in New York". The Plays of Géza Páskándi in English Translation
Hungarian plays are relatively unknown in the international context (excepting perhaps some works by Franz Molnár). The article reconstructs the reception of some plays by Géza Páskándi, mentioning the important role of Eugene Brogyanyi, who presented several plays at the Threshold Theatre Company from New York, in his own translation – the translations being published in 1999 in Cluj under the title Moment of Sincerity. The key-words appearing in the written accouts about the New York representations were "absurd", "grotesque", "satirical". The author shows also how Páskándi´s reception was connec-ted to Beckett´s works, and reveals some inte-resting aspects that can justify such an approach.
História
Világablak
Mű és világa
The Romance, the Fairy Story and The Beginning of the 20th Century
The essay entitled The Romance, the Fairy Story and The Beginning of the 20th Century is searching for the marks of the desire-centured romance among the fairy stories written at the turn of the century. The author takes into consideration two theoretical efforts and literary practices in this field: theory on tales by Anna Lesznai and György Lukács as well as fairy stories written by Lesznai and Béla Balázs. These works are shown as efforts which represent the desire for boundlessness and its triumph – in contrast to the ironizing tendencies in the 19th century, deglorifying and demythicizing stories written by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Andersen and Oscar Wilde.
Téka
Talló