Timea Antal (UCLA) 

The Transformation of The Concept of Love: Zsigmond Moricz and Rokonok 

In the western culture, the study of human sexuality springs out of the curiosity of great thinkers of the period when they start analyzing the different aspects of love and sexuality in connection with the generally accepted moral values and beliefs of the time. 
This analysis is present in the writings of Móricz Zsigmond, who breaks the silence around sexuality, and gives voice to people’s deepest desire to feel complete and happy through the manifestation of love. Most of Móricz’s characters are constructed around this concept, and he focuses on the dilemma and the outcome of these characters’ dilemma. 
In his novel “Relatives”, Móricz analysis the dilemma of a middle class intellectual, István Kopjás, who gets in direct contact with the upper class since he is elected as a town clerk. 
The subject of my discussion would be the analyses of István and his wife’s – Lina-- relationship, and how their relationship changes due to interacting with the upper class. Mostly, an analysis of Pista’s desires, dreams, projections, and disappointments because of being able to break out of the conventional, generally accepted middle class lifestyle, and daring to feel and experience passion and love by stepping into the sphere of the sophisticated high class woman, embodied in the presence of Szentkálnay Magdaléna. 
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John Balas 
The Buckeye Budapest Connection: The Prussian Paradigm meets Pestalozzi and Piaget 

We will focus on the contrasts and comparisons of educational systems gleaned from our multi-year teacher exchanges between Ohio and Hungary (sponsored by the US Department of State). Mr. Kowalik’s work in the Ministry of Education focused on reform. Dr. Troyer has incorporated similar options into delivery systems in Ohio. The synergy of this collaboration can spark thoughtful debate and help plot meaningful change strategies. 
Presenters : Dr. Marilyn Troyer, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ohio Department of Education, Tamas Kowalik, current policy analyst in the Hungarian Ministry of Commerce (formerly Education) and current fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, John Balas, Chairman, The Hungary Ohio Partnership for Education (HOPE) Foundation 
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Balázs Balogh (Institute of Ethnology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) 

Lifestyle, Identity and Picture of Future of Hungarian-American 
Communities of Western Pennsylvania 

Hungarian immigrants had been settled down in large numbers in the mining towns and factory workers’ estates around Pittsburgh since the very end of the 19th century. Parallel with the gradual decay and finally the bankruptcy of the mining and still-industry in the 1970-80s the Hungarian communities have also started disintegrating. Nowadays the out-migration from the Pittsburgh industrial area caused by the lack of employment, the aging of the population and assimilation processes together have resulted a drastic shrinking and/or final extinction of formerly populous Hungarian communities. The most important culture and identity integrating force, which is still able to enhance and maintain community cohesion of the remaining remnants of the Hungarians is the institution of the Hungarian Reformed Church. 
The paper intends to present the process of lifestyle and identity change and picture of future of Western-Pennsylvanian Hungarian-American communities through concrete examples based on the experience of intensive field work, interviews and written archival documents. 
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Balogh, Eva (Inependent Scholar) 

Going to School in Hungary and in the US 

Quality education is one of the most valuable assets for present and future generations. Achieving its goals requires strong commitments from everybody. 

There are a number of questions to answer while comparing resources, organizations, and issues involving government, schools, teachers, parents, and student performance on key subject areas. What is the role of basic education? Do we have a system that provides everybody with a chance to make the most of their abilities? What are the similarities and differences between the Hungarian and the American educational structures? Is there an ideal system? 

Evaluation of educational systems in the US and in Hungary will be based on personal experience and supported by statistical data. This presentation will compare how the two educational systems operate from pre-school to higher education at every stage of life. 
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Brant Beyer (Indiana University, Russian & East European Institute School of Public & Environmental Affairs ) 
The Szeklers and the European Union: 
the European Influence on Ethnic Politics in Romania 


This talk examines the European Union’s (EU) affect on minority politics, focusing on Szekler regional autonomy in Romania. The EU’s design provides a methodology, an incentive, and a forum for autonomy in Romania. The EU’s subsidiarity principle (the idea that government decisions should be made at the low possible level) reframes the debate, allowing Szekler organizations to justify autonomy with subsidiarity. Romania created economic development regions as part of the accession process, which distribute EU funds. The Center Development Region’s structure places the Szeklers at a disadvantage, since the Szeklers remain a minority in this region, creating a financial motivation to push for a Szekler development region. The European Parliament has become a forum for debating Szekler autonomy, bringing Hungarians from all EU countries into direct contact with each other. Hungarian Members of the European Parliament pressed the EU for autonomy during Romania’s accession to the EU, and Hungarian and Transylvanian Hungarian MEPs have worked together in the European Parliament for autonomy. These three factors came together during the November 2007 Romanian European Parliamentary elections, when Transylvanian Hungarian politicians used autonomy and the EU extensively in their campaigns; resulting in two Transylvania Hungarians voices in the European Parliament. 
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Ruth Biro (Duquesne University) and Christina Levicky (Duquesne University) 

Follow the White Stag: The Story of the Csodaszarvas (Miraculous Hind) 
in the Legend of the Founding of Hungary 

The year 2008 is the fiftieth anniversary of the “Follow the White Stag” leadership program for scouts in the United States, which was inspired by the 1933 World Jamboree of the Boy Scouts held in Gödöllo, Hungary. On that occasion, the jamboree badge featured the Csodaszarvas (Miraculous Hind), the iconic image in the story of the legendary founding of Hungary. Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the scouting movement, stated: “You may look on that White Stag as the pure spirit of Scouting, springing forward and upward, ever leading you onward and upward to leap over difficulties.” 
Dr.Bela Banathy, late professor of systems education at Saybrooke Graduate School and founder of the International Systems Institute, was a Hungarian boy scout in attendance at the international jamboree. He would later use the concepts from that message in a leadership development program for the Boy Scouts of America. After WWII Banathy emigrated from Hungary to the United States where he became an instructor at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. He adapted the leadership program he developed for the US Army as a scout patrol leadership training program for youth ages 12-17. Joining him in his work on the Follow the White Stag project would be Hungarian scouts Paul Suran and Joe St. Clair who attended the jamboree and emigrated to the USA, along with R. Maurice Tripp, a scout from America who was also there. They did not meet in Gödöllo in 1933, but came together in California. 
. The BSA National Council incorporated the eleven leadership principles into the Follow the White Stag program and the Wood Badge, using a modified version of the White Stag symbol from the 1933 jamboree badge. Today the Follow the White Stag:Leadership Development for Youth program manual of 228 pages is in its third edition and has challenged thousands of boys and girls in scouting in the USA. The program utilizes the story of the quest for the stag told in Kate Seredy’s White Stag , the 1938 Newbery award winner for the most outstanding children’s book . 
The presentation will cover leadership principles from comparative literature on the white stag legend, program components of the Follow the White Stag garnered from the 1933 international jamboree in Hungary held seventy five years ago, and the method by which American scouts learn about the legend of the founding of Hungary. Elements pertaining to the history and practice of Follow the White Stag will coordinate with the 2008 AHEA conference theme of Hungarian identity in an intercultural world. Bánáthy, a long-standing member of the Hungarian Scout Association Abroad, assisted in the effort to bring the Hungarian Scout Association into the World Scout Conference following the era of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe. Transplanted in to the United States in the post war era, Dr. Bánáthy never forgot his Hungarian roots and experiences, incorporated the Hungarian legend into a design for leadership that is used in several nations, and developed books and materials promoting foreign language study that reach across borders and cultures. 
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Wayne Brinda 
Survivors of yesterday are the heroes of today: 
Hearing “Memories” of Hungarian war survivors through literature and theatre 
There are numerous lessons to teach from history, but to engage young people in history to learn life lessons educators must help students look beyond texts and hear people; children with dreams, plans, ideas, and friends. The tumultuous history of Hungary provides a template for teaching not only war, but also for providing insight on how people faced challenges of continual conflict. Transforming literature into a one-act play where young people not only read, but say the words of survivors helps others make significant, personal discoveries. An example is the play “Memories” created from four novels of the Hungarian Holocaust. The presentation shares the process of selecting literature, creating the script, and presenting the play which opens with: “One is one’s memories. One cannot exist without memories. Memories connect the past, present and future. They connect oneself with the world. The fate of Jews during the Holocaust differed country by country, region by region. What evolved slowly in Germany or over twelve years in Poland took less than ten months in Hungary. These are the memories of young people from Hungary.” 
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Sylvia Csuros Clark (St. John’s University) and Judit Hajnal Ward (Rutgers University) 
Q&A bilingually: A framework for intercultural research 
This paper approaches American-Hungarian intercultural research from the perspective of the bilingual researcher by integrating research issues across languages and cultures into a framework encompassing data collection and analysis. A brief review of bilingual and intercultural research methods in relevant areas is followed by a discussion of major issues related to language, communication styles, cultures, translation and interpretation pertinent to both data collection and analysis in an intercultural setting. Based on empirical data drawn from their research, the authors propose a framework for conducting bilingual, intercultural research applicable to qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodologies, where the language of research is cross-tabulated with language of data in regard to source and target languages. The framework originally evolved from a quantitative research study in 2003 on market orientation in Hungarian firms, which is discussed in detail to illustrate the pitfalls of research design and communication roadblocks across cultures. The preliminary study used an English-language survey distributed to dozens of companies, which, after yielding a negligible response rate, had to be reviewed for cultural content and translated. Further implementation of the framework has proven to offer possible remedies for bilingual, intercultural research obstacles, which may be useful for a variety of scholars in a diverse research environment 
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Amadeo Di Francesco (U. of Naples, Italy) 
The American Dream in Hungarian Literature of the 20th Century 
(Paper to be presented in Hungarian) 

An examination of several of the works of several Hungarian authors which deal with America, Americans, and Hungarian Americans. Some of these are: Endre Ady, Milán Füst, Jenõ Heltai, Sándor Hunyady, Ferenc Molnár, Zsigmond Móricz, Endre Nagy, Lajos Zilahy, Áron Tamási, and Albert Wass. 
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Domokos Johanna (UCLA) 
Modes of relations and self-deception in Zsigmond Móricz's: Rokonok 

“A relative is someone, with whom you laugh at the same time” 

I would like to highlight three important theses of Móricz's “theory of relations” expressed in the novel Rokonok. These theses are the basis of every action, whether or not the characters themselves are aware of it. 

1. Being related to someone emphasizes not so much the closeness as the distance between people. In this novel relations make us aware of the discontinuities, ruptures,and fault lines of society. 

2. Laughing “at the same time”, but not at the same thing, bridges ruptures. For a moment it switches off the contrasting thoughts and emotions. 

3. Cognitive and emotional dissonances bridged by laughter produce different ways of (“self”-)deception. Deception becomes the main process of denying or rationalizing away the significance of opposing evidence and logical argument. 
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Mario Fenyõ (Bowie State College) 

A Hundred Years on: the Nyugat 

As we know, the Nyugat [Occident] was a literary journal of the first half of the 20th century; it also claimed to be a social, scientific, economic and political one. Its appearance on the scene in January 1908 coincided with modernization and urbanization in Hungary and some neighboring lands. 

If we take the scientific view that there are no coincidences in history, how do we explain this "coincidence"? How exceptional was the Hungarian literary scene? Was the Nyugat the mirror that reflected certain developments or was it a chisel? Does it have an afterlife? Does it have a lasting impact that goes beyond the Ady Endre phenomenon? Does the present generation of Hungarian literati owe anything to the Nyugat? Do the rest of us, intellectuals or not, young or not so young, owe anything to the Nyugat today? Does the outside world care? 
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Mónika Fodor (University of Pécs) 
“Struggling to remain Hungarian”—Narrative Representations of Ethno-Cultural Identity among Second- and Third-Generation Hungarian-Americans 


In this paper I discuss personal narratives elicited in 28 qualitative interviews with ten second- and third-generation Hungarian-Americans regarding their understanding of ethnicity. The stories illustrate how the elements and icons of the individual’s culture create a unique world that hosts ethnocultural identity. Liminality is a key aspect of the process, which supports the self-reflexive nature of narrative identity construction. The narratives are approached from a Cultural Studies, American Studies, and Applied Linguistics point of view to encapsulate the complexity of ethnic life experiences. 
The term liminality in this context refers to borderland existence at the boundaries and margins of legitimate cultural units such as ethnicity. The individual is positioned relative to the non-geographical boundaries of his or her ancestors’ culture and to the borders of the chosen locale. Te ten Hungarian-American conversational partners articulate their liminal spheres of existence along nine themes as the knowledge and ability to navigate in two distinctive cultures. The paper explores three: (1) stereotypes (2) community and (3) uniqueness. The analysis of cultural, narrative, and linguistic devices that construct liminality supports the discursive bidirectional acculturation of these people and reveals the ethnocultural metanarrative of a sense of homeland that their stories build. 
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Ágnes Fülemile (Indiana University Institute of Ethnology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) 

The Role of Spouse Selection in the Formation of a Historical Identity Region– the Case of Kalotaszeg, a Calvinist Hungarian Region in Transylvania (Romania) 

Ágnes Fülemile and Balázs Balogh (Institute of Ethnology of Hungarian Academy of Sciences) have been doing anthropologic fieldwork in 100 communities of the Kalotaszeg region and the larger area around Cluj (Kolozsvár) since the beginning of 1990s. 
Kalotaszeg which consists of approximately 40 settlements, inhabited either partly or entirely by Calvinist Hungarians, has developed a strong regional self-identity through the ages. Kalotaszeg comprises a relatively homogeneous but very fragile and rapidly shrinking island of Hungarians in Transylvania. 
In the formation of a regional spatial structure, the network of marriage system has been playing an exceptional importance. The marriage preferences have been drawing boundaries alongside religious, social, ethnic and regional lines. 
A thorough study of the local societies, network of human connections and most of all the reconstruction of traditional marriage circles helped mapping the regional structure, with its sub- and micro-regions, and hierarchies in between various settlements. Historic layers of regional identity have been revealed through placing a special importance on understanding the genuine self-descriptions of the local people reflecting independent identity consciousness and spatial perspectives necessary for their self-categorisation. 
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Susan Glanz (St. John=s University) 
Entrepreneurship in Hungary and the USA; analysis of two Eurobarometer survey results 

Entrepreneurship is the underpinning of economic growth. A comparison of entrepreneurial activities in Hungary will be evaluated on the results of Flash Barometer #160 and #192, public opinion surveys conducted in the EU25, which includes data for the USA. The role of the European Union will also be evaluated as it is important in both an indirect and a direct way, as provider of uncertainty reducing role and devices and as supplier of resources. 
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Emese Ivan (Ball State University) 

“Straddling the Divide: Hungarian Identity through Elite Culture 
and the Sporting Popular” 

The field of academic studies as visual culture and cultural studies have increasingly crossed disciplinary, cultural, and public divides, engaging popular discourse such as sport as part of a cultural turn away from their respective parent discipline of art history and literature in an effort to better understand and affect change in contemporary society. Likewise, sport sociology and physical cultural studies have begun to adopt literary and artistic, or performative, content, methods, and theories to address the complex interplay of contemporary sport and society. 
In reference to the Conference’s theme – Hungarian Identity in an Intercultural World – this paper addresses the issues of building Hungarian identity through hegemonic sporting cultures in the USA and Europe respectively. Eric Hobsbawm argued, that through the 20th Century the ‘in the popular culture the world was American or it was provincial’ with one unique exception: that of sport. Hegemonic sporting culture is one that dominates a nation’s emotional attachments rather than its sporting activities. Put differently, this study is not about the world of athletes but about that of coach potatoes: hegemonic sports cultures occur on sports radio call-in programs rather than on the sports fields. 
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Gabi Johnson (Queens College) 

Minority Language vs. Majority Language 
“Minority language is easily lost, while majority language is easily gained.” 

According to Michael Krauss between 20% to 50% of the world’s existing languages are likely to die or become close to death in the next 100 years. There are several reasons for this: languages are not being reproduced by children, assimilation, economic pressures that will make future generations prefer majority languages. 

However, there are two ways a person is able to learn a second language. One is simultaneous, when the child is ready from birth to acquire and differentiate two or more languages or sequential when later on at any age he or she will learn the second language. 

In the US, in this melting pot languages are being spoken every day, yet there is a mostly monolingual forms of education for bilinguals. Bilingual parents are usually discouraged by teachers or by other professionals to speak their native language because of speech delays or other cognitive disadvantages. 

Currently, the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) requires teachers to teach only through English. ESL programs receive state fundings whereas the direct federal role in supporting bilingual education was eliminated. 

As of 1962 (Peal and Lambert) as we call it the Period of Additive Effects bilingualism were no longer considered detrimental. Rather, their research was to support the cognitive advantages of bilingualism. They concluded that bilingualism provides greater mental flexibility, the ability to think more abstractly, more independently of words. According to Ianco-Worrall research children can reach a stage of semantic development two-three years earlier than their monolingual peers. By owning two or more languages the originality, the fluency, flexibility and elaboration in thinking may increase. In several researches it was proven that adult balanced bilinguals were superior on scientific problem solving. In Bialystok studies the children showed more complex understanding of the idea of words than did monolingual children did. 
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Kissne, Novak Eva (U. of Szeged) 

The Attraction of Personality 

The paper makes the concept of personality clear. It explores the change of the complex idea. I speak about the importance and difficulty of 
self – knowledge. I only enumerate those professions in which personality has a peculiar significance. The paper is about the profession of teachers as far as personality is concerned. 
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Angela Kun-Gazda 
Hungarian Nationhood and Schengen Enlargement 
On 21 December 2007, after two years of preparation, the European Union formally lifted border controls for citizens of nine of its newest member states, including the Republic of Hungary. Border checkpoints, among the last visible remnants of the Iron Curtain, were ceremonially dismantled allowing people to freely cross the frontiers that once divided them. Travel document checks at these airports are to be abolished in March 2008. While this will permit Hungarian citizens to enjoy the benefits of deregulated cross-border movement, it also means that Hungary has become one of the last frontiers between the EU’s Schengen Area and non-EU countries, among them those countries having significant native Hungarian populations. Hungary has to find the right balancing act between external relations considerations, as it is under pressure to increase border security, and its responsibilities towards members of more marginal Hungarian communities living outside of its present-day borders. Thus, the Schengen enlargement revisits questions about Hungarian self-perception, national cohesion and assertions of national identity that have been raised in post-socialist Hungary, for example, at the country’s accession to NATO and the EU, and with the passing of the Status Law (Act LXII of 2001. 
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Kathy A. Megyeri 
Sisters Ilonka and Mariska Karasz Influence Fashion and Design 

Mariska Karasz (1898-1960) provided women and children’s clothing to many devoted patrons in the 1920's and 1930's. She inspired other artists, craftspeople, and hobbyists through her embroidered wall hangings in the later 1940's and 1950's. During her successful and remarkable three-part career in New York in women’s fashion, children’s fashion and embroidery, she maintained her love for fabrics, threads, and colors. She was always inspired by the folk arts of her native Hungary, and in her later years, she wrote instructional books on sewing and design. 
Her sister, Ilonka Karasz, was the first woman to be admitted to the Royal School of Arts and Crafts in Budapest. The influence of Hungarian peasant art, filled with bright colors and floral design, impacted her work which was first published in the Hungarian-language magazine, Magyar Nõ, on its cover in 1927, which began her American career. She started a Hungarian theater group in 1921, but more importantly, she impacted graphic arts, interior design and the decorative arts in America. 
This academic study will examine both their impact on fashion and design in the U.S. 
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Erzsébet Molnár (University of Miskolc) 
The Last Transylvanian Polymath: Sámuel Brassai’s Life and Work 

The aim of this paper is to introduce Sámuel Brassai, the teacher, the outstanding scholar of the 19th century. He played a great role in the Reform era which was the time of rapid development in the cultural life of Hungary. 

His life, work and activity were inspired by thoughts that nowadays, a hundred years after his death, at the beginning of the 21st century are still valid. These thoughts are in the fields of education, economy, morality, research into the nation’s prosperity. He was an excellent linguist, natural scientist, philosopher, critic, mathematician, musician, teacher, essay writer, university 
professor, and a regular member of the Academy of Sciences. 

At the center of Brassai’s life-work was his research into the methodological principles of teaching. His pedagogical system is the harmonious synthesis of his educational goals and methods. According to it the purpose of education is to create a good man and a good citizen. In his opinion this goal can only be reached if the school supplies the students with appropriate knowledge based on the requirements of the age and with the help of a well-chosen method. 

He was an encyclopedic scholar, the great teacher of the nation who was continuously searching for the solution to the reform of education. Acquiring knowledge kept him alive, and gave him strength to turn towards new sciences again and again. 

He is rightly called the last Transylvanian polymath and the great teacher of the nation. 
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Katalin Nyikos (Georgetown U.) 
Challenging Issues in Language Maintenance 
In a participatory session, audience members will be challenged to consider their personal experiences with bilingualism and the trade-offs that their acquisition and maintenance have entailed. Whether simultaneous or sequential, the acquisition of two languages places a dual burden on the speaker to provide sustenance for each in order for both to develop. For those who are parents, teachers, or Hungarian youth leaders (e.g. Hungarian scouting), it is vital to consider the system of values which supports language development and retention as well as the push-pull of forces which cause language erosion in a foreign culture and language setting. Results of a questionnaire will be reviewed and audience input solicited. 
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Martha Nyikos (Indiana U.) 
Three case studies of native language erosion 

This presentation will examine three case studies of Hungarian girls learning English in the USA and the parallel decline in their Hungarian language abilities and cultural identification. These children, whose parents have come to the US as visiting scholars, met with the researcher in bi-yearly meetings and expressed their challenges and progress. The presentation will explore how the children conceptualize/characterize their progress in English and their native language loss. More specifically, when and how they began to notice and what stances they take when they can’t easily access their native language after two or three years will be examined. Analysis of the the case studies finds that social forces, parental stances and personal decisions play a strong role in the children's language retention and their willingness to identify themselves as Hungarian. 
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Judith E. Olson, American Hungarian Folklore Centrum 
Speaking Without Words: Musical and Physical Interaction in Hungarian Men's Dance 

Hungarian men's dance looks like a bravura expression of skill and masculine power. But to the participants and those who know the language, it is a complex show of personality, communication, and accommodation between the dancer and the band, among the dancers, and with the community. Dancing is one way a man finds his place among other men and woos his life partner. 
In this talk, I will take apart various figures of the dance and note where the dancers found them, musical aspects, and how they interrelate with what the band is playing and the choices of other dancers. I will relate my commentary to that of participating male dancers and observers. 
My primary research material will be men's performance at the "Nemzetközi MezÅoségi néptánc- és népzenetábor," with reference to dance in other parts of Transylvania, Budapest and New Jersey/New York. 
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Mártha Pereszlényi-Pintér (John Carroll University) 
“Fõznek a férfiak! A Literary and Cultural History of Hungarian Men Chefs” 


The aphorisms of Brillat-Savarin, 19th century French gastronome, include: “Tell me what you eat, I will tell you who you are,” and “The destiny of a nation depends on the manner in which it feeds itself.” While Hungarian culture tends to attribute cooking to its womenfolk, especially mothers, men of Hungarian background have certainly shaped the nation’s destiny as well. Records of Hungarian gastronomy date from the 15th Century Renaissance ruler Matthias Corvinus, who insisted that everything that happened in his court be recorded, in the greatest of detail, by his chronicler, Marzio Galeotto, including the food they ate and how it was cooked. Even earlier, male historical culinary figures include King St. Stephen who gave royal permissions to monks to house guests and sell wines. King Sigismund awarded a patent of nobility (1414) to his court chef, Ereszvényi. The first printed Hungarian language cookbook, by Miklós Kiss de Misztótfalu, appeared in Transylvania (1696). Misztótfalu’s other two major works were a dictionary and the Bible - so one can see how important cooking must have been even then! This presentation will be illustrated with visuals and include references to food in Hungarian literature (especially poetry: József Berda), to the actor Ede Ujházy, and to modernists such as the Gundel, Láng, Kövi and Szatmáry. 
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Barnabas Racz (Eastern Michigan U.) 

International Law and the UN in the Hungarian Case 1956-1962 

The Hungarian Revolution was one of the outstanding events in the Cold War era and had reverberating consequences domestically and internationally. The history of the time period between 23 October and 4 November 1956 produced a voluminous historical and political literature, including studies of international relations. Most works centered around philosophical, literary, and political approaches and side-tracked the international law and United Nations aspects. Most Hungarian approaches, in particular, were Hungaro-centrist and not only disregarded the unforlding drama before the UN, but undervalued the external power political factors. The present study is a modest attempt to fill this gap and project a focused image of UN/International Law in the uprising’s picture. 
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Susanna Lippóczy Rich 
Nun Flying Through Walls: Women of Hungary in Stone 
During my joint Fulbright and Collegium Budapest Fellowships in Creative Writing in 2005, I took over 4,000 photographs of open-air statues of female figures. For our 2008 AHEA Conference, I propose to present a slide show, with analysis, entitled “Nun Flying Through Walls: Women in Stone.” Forming a chapter of my awards manuscript, “Still Hungary: A Memoir,” this article provides a ten-point model for reading monuments, worldwide, for how they mythologize women. 
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Szabó Lilla 

Báró Mednyánszky László a Magyar Festészet Meghatározó Alakja 

A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria és a Szlovák Nemzeti Galéria közös kutatómunkájának alapján valósult meg 2003-ban és 2004-ben Budapesten és Pozsonyban Mednyánszky László festõmûvész (1852-1919) életét és festészetét bemutató nagyszabású kiállítás. 
Báró Mednyánszky László, a ma Szlovákia területén fekvõ Beckón született, gyermekkorát szintén a Felvidékhez tartozó Nagyõrön töltötte, s élete folyamán minden évben hónapokra hazatért ebbe az õsi reneszánsz kastélyba. Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia szinte minden városában otthonosan érzete magát, csakúgy, mint Olaszországban, vagy Párizsban. Éppen ezért választódott szinte ketté az életmû és valósult meg, közel kilencven évtized múltán a mûvek egymás mellé helyezése és Mednyánszky életútjának behatóbb megközelítése. 
Mednyánszky egész élete folyamán naplóbejegyzéseket készített, amelyekbõl számos, a társadalmi összefüggéseket felismerõ társadalom-politikai, filozófiai stb. megállapítása, illetve világszemlélete olvasható ki. Mednyánszky László életérõl és mûvészetérõl elmondható, hogy a 19. század második felétõl az elsõ világháború végéig terjedõ rendkívül összetett korszak egyik olyan jelentõs alakja, kinek mûvészetének hátterében a századforduló minden fontos tényezõje megtalálható. Elõadásomban ezekrõl a kérdésekrõl kívánok szólni, azaz Mednyánszky László életmûvének és napló-bejegyzéseinek összefüggéseit vizsgálva, a kor mûvészeti, filozófiai, irodalmi, valamint történelmi, gazdaságtani kérdéseirõl szeretnék beszélni. Azokról a kérdésekrõl, amelyek általánosan hatottak a 19. század folyamán, s amelyekre utalásokat találunk a festõ feljegyzéseiben is. 

Mednyánszky naplókban rögzítette nemcsak életének napi eseményeit, utazásainak állomás-helyeit, az általa meglátogatott kiállításokat, barátainak nevét, stb., de tényszerû, vagy részletesebb ismertetéseket találunk olvasmányélményeirõl, könyv-vásárlásairól is. (A kutatásaim során olyan részlettémák és eredmények születtek, amelyek az életmû további feltárásához és pontosításához szolgálhatnak újabb adalékul.) Ismerte a kor meghatározó esztétájának, az angol John Ruskinnak könyveit, olvasta Tolsztojt, a francia Tanine-t, – hogy csak azokat említsem, akikrõl közelebbrõl szólnék. 
Mednyánszky mûvészet-, valamint természet- és táj-felfogásán kívül, a szociális érzékenységével magyarázott, szociális irányú és gazdaságtannal összefüggõ bejegyzései meglepõ párhuzamokat vetnek fel Ruskinnak, részben a Modern Painters, s még inkább az Into this Last címû mûvében lefektetett, a maga korában rendkívül újszerû szociális és gazdasági tanaival. Sõt, Justh Zsigmond által 1883 és 1886 között mûködtetett Debating Society, illetve Ruskin 1871-ben megalapította St.George’s Guild - Szent György - Céh utópista szervezet, továbbá Mednyánszkynak az egyszerû emberek felemelkedéséért szorgalmazott szervezkedései közti összecsengések, arra utalnának, hogy mindkettõjük, azaz Justh és Mednyánszky ez irányú elképzelései Ruskin nézeteire és a gyakorlatban is megkísérelt társadalmi reformjaira lennének visszavezethetõek. 
Mednyánszky napló-bejegyzései az 1890-es évektõl erõteljes szemléletváltozást, sõt addigi világfelfogásában és mûvészetében történõ fordulópontot jeleznek. A szemléletváltozás okainak feltárásában közvetve közrejátszott Mednyánszky természeti katasztrófák (Vezúv kitörése, árvíz, tûzvész) és társadalmi konfliktusok (háború, sztrájk, tömegverekedés) iránti „fokozott”, (túlzott) érdeklõdésének kérdése is. A naplóban közölt konkrét adatok nyomán egy újabb aspektusból vizsgáltam meg a problémát. A „(szemlélet)-változás” okaira legfõként az 1894-ben egymás utáni napokon, az aktuális olvasmány-élményei nyomán tett sorai adnak választ. Január 2.-án és 3.-án Tolstoj „Sebastopol”-ját, 4.-én pedig Hippolyte Taine-nek a francia forradalomról szóló, frissen megjelent munkáját, a Les Origines de la France contemporaine, 1876-1894 (A korabeli Franciaország eredete) címû nagy történelmi szintézisû mû második kötetét említi. Mednyánszky Tolsztoj olvasása kapcsán bejegyzett, háborúra vonatkozó rövid, rendkívül impulzív mondatai, a „Ha fiatal koromban háborúban vettem volna részt! Tolsztoj »Sebastopol«-ja!” felkiáltása és különös, ellentétes jelenetek leírásával feszültséget keltõ szöveg, a teljes kötet elolvasása nyomán érthetõbbé válnak. És még inkább érthetõvé – sõt magyarázattá válik kijelentése „Az ifjúkor friss, kékeslila hangulata, amelyen egy más, ellentétes hangulat, a háború vonul végig. Számomra ez szinte prófétai jellegû, amennyiben a békés mindennapi élet és a háborús élet izgalmának kontrasztjával életem lényegét adja.” – folytatással. Mint ahogy valóban prófétainak hangzanak – Taine könyve nyomán tett, szinte az elsõ világháború kitörésére utaló megjegyzései. Mednyánszkynak nem volt nehéz megjövendölnie a világháborút. Saját élettapasztalata is segítette a felismeréshez. De alapvetõen Taine történelem szemlélete alapján értette meg, hogy a társadalmak (pl. magyar, osztrák, francia, stb.) õ általa is látott nincstelen egyedei, mint a munkások, a lovászfiúk, a csavargók, tömegként jelenhetnek meg. A Tolsztoj megjelenítette képek Taine munkája nyomán túlnõtték a festõ felfogásában a krimi háború kereteit. Taine történelem szemlélete ébresztette rá, hogy minden forradalom és háború közös vonása az utánuk, – köztük természetesen az 1848-as magyar szabadságharc után is, – visszamaradó társadalmi, politikai feszültségek. Ezek a feszültségek és a hatványozottan megjelenõ nyomor pedig mindenkori idõzített bombaként mûködnek, újabb és egyre nagyobb katasztrófával fenyegetve. Így írt egy pusztító társadalmi és nemzeti földrengés közeledtérõl, mintegy elõrevetítetten látva az elsõ világháborút 1894-ben Mednyánszky. Ebbõl az aspektusból, – illetve, Ruskin, Nietzsche, Tolsztoj, Taine mûveinek, továbbá Mednyánszky és a Szirmay család tagjainak a magyar szabadságharchoz és nemzeti kultúrához kapcsolódó történelmi összefüggéseinek elemzésével újabb vonásokkal gazdagítható Mednyánszky László festészetének képzõmûvészeti és filozófiai mélysége, humanizmusa. 
A 19. századot is meghatározó ezen esztétikai, filozófiai, gazdaságtani és történelmi összefüggések figyelembevétele is hozzásegít bennünket ahhoz, hogy feltárjuk és értékeljük a festõ mûvészeti és szemléleti fejlõdésében végbement fordulópont-szerû változást. Az 1890-es évektõl a haláláig tartó korszakának szemléletváltozásában – Tolsztoj és Taine könyve nyomán – Mednyánszky történelem felismerését tapasztaljuk. S ebbõl az értelmezésbõl közelítve meg Mednyánszky kijelentéseit a háborúról és pusztulásról más jelentést is hordoznak, mint a háborúk és tragédiák iránti, pusztán magában való mély érdeklõdését. Összefoglalva a fentieket megkíséreljük annak kijelentését, hogy Mednyánszky természet-szemlélete Ruskin nézeteihez, világnézete Nietzsche gondolkodásához is közelít, míg történelem- és világ-szemléletére Taine hatott. 
Mednyánszky festészetének és napló-bejegyzéseinek együttes vizsgálata, valamint a szakirodalom tanulmányozása során érzékelhetõ volt egy további nagyon fontos kérdés: az 1945 elõtti Mednyánszky kutatások „függõben” maradása. Az ismert történelmi okokból megszakadt, illetve szétvált a Mednyánszky életmû feltárása és feldolgozása; elõször Mednyánszky 1919-ben bekövetkezett halála, majd az 1945 után történt politikai és társadalmi változások nyomán. Úgy a magyar, mint a szlovák szakemberek egymástól függetlenül kutatták Mednyánszkyt. Nemcsak a kutatások váltak ketté, és futottak szinte párhuzamosan egymástól függetlenül, hanem ráadásul mindkét részrõl, a festõ arisztokrata származása miatt késõn, kb. csak az 1970-es évektõl kezdtek újra mûvészetével foglalkozni. Mindeközben a magyar és a szlovák kutatásokból – az országok politikai rendszere korlátozta nyugati utazások és kutatások miatt – egyaránt kimaradtak a festõ nyugat-európai, legfõként franciaországi mûködésének elemzése. Így elmondható, hogy Malonyai Dezsõ és Kállai Ernõ monográfiájában, valamint Schanzer Mária doktori értekezésében szereplõ ez irányú nagyszámú utalások és fejtegetések további tisztázására nem került sor. S közel egy évszázad elteltével is kijelenthetõ, hogy a franciaországi, az olasz, a dalmát, szerbiai kutatások hiányában sok fontos kérdés vár még megválaszolásra. 
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Endre Szentkiralyi (Nordonia Hills City Schools) 

Teens Map the Community: 
Ethbographic Research among Cleveland’s Older Hungarians 

For the last 35 years, the Hungarian Scout Folk Ensemble (Clevelandi Cserkész Regös Csoport) has preserved and presented Hungarian folk arts, including dances, customs, songs, woodcarving, painting, and storytelling. Members of the group are Hungarian-American teenagers whose parents or grandparents emigrated from the Carpathian basin, and all are involved in Cleveland’s Hungarian scout troops. In 2003 the members of the Ensemble embarked on an oral history project, interviewing and recording older relatives, portions of which were shared during the Ensemble’s 30th Anniversary Gala Performance. In 2004 they expanded the scope of their project, visiting 12 Hungarian churches in the Cleveland area, talking to older Hungarians. These taped interviews have been transcribed, and current members of the Ensemble are in the process of conducting one last round of ethnographic research, visiting the 12 churches again to interview older Hungarians, both from the Buckeye neighborhood and newer immigrants, about their experiences growing up Hungarian in Cleveland. This research will be documented in a book to be published summer of 2008, with a tentative title of “Clevelandben is élnek magyarok? Visszaemlékezések gyûjteménye.” The editor of the book will describe the oral history project and will share excerpts from the forthcoming book. 
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Andrea Szonyi (Zachor Foundation for Social Remembrance) 

Personal History in Education: 
Introduction of the bilingual Holocaust educational website 
www.emlekezem.hu - www.iremember.hu 

Experience in Holocaust education led to the decision that an easy-to-reach educational tool is necessary, as the topic is still a very much scared, and neglected, teachers do not know how to approach it. In Hungary, as in many other countries applying the linear history teaching method, students learn about the Holocaust only towards the end of their secondary studies: usually reading about – rather alienating-- numbers and data in their course-books. It is extremely important to present our students the trauma of the Holocaust within a social-historical context, but the personal context is equally important. Plus, without showing that persecuted people once used to be integrated members of the society, we cannot expect students to be 
able to relate to the loss. The nothing cannot be perceived without knowing about the something that preceded it. Personal life stories of survivors combine these elements: life preceding and following the Shoah and personal approach. The on-line availability (www.emlekezem.hu - www.iremember.hu) of the stories accompanied with elaborated teaching materials and the complex informational background on the site is intended to help teachers in their educational work. The bilingual character of the site offers a great chance for both disciplinary integration (Holocaust education at a language class) and international usability. 

The paper intends to present the details of this alternative educational tool and lay out the concept of personal remembrance in the elaboration of social and historical traumas. It also tries to introduce a different approach, which might help readers (teachers and students alike) become more empathic towards the suffering of the other. 
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Agnes Huszár Várdy (Duquesne University) 

Industrial Accidents in Early 20th Century Pennsylvania 
as Depicted in Contemporary Emigré Poetry 


At this very moment we are in the midst of commemorating some of the worst mine and blast-furnace disasters in Pennsylvania’s history. These disasters occurred exactly one century ago in 1907, when hundreds of Hungarians and thousands of other eastern and southern European immigrants died under most horrible circumstances. They were victims of the rapid and uncontrolled industrial expansion in America, and the simultaneous absence of protective laws and a social welfare system that could have cushioned the hardship that befell to the 
families of the perished workers. 

Contemporary newspapers -- including Hungarian-American papers -- are filled with the description of these horrible catastrophes. But they are also remembered and recorded in the poetry of that period. Much of this poetry is of modest aesthetic quality, written by those who wielded the pen not so much because of their poetic abilities (which was usually limited), but because they witnessed the misery of their fellow Hungarians. The best known of these poets 
were Gyula Rudnyánszky (1858-1913), László Pólya (1870-1950), György Kemény 
(1875-1952), György Szécskay (1880-1958), László Szabó (1880-1961), Árpád Tarnóczy (1884-1957), Károly Rácz-Rónay (1886-1927), and Pál Szarvas (1883-1938). These writers generally made their living by serving their ethnic communities either as pastors and/or as journalists. Of these eight poets, the Pittsburgh-based György Szécskay and the Cleveland- Detroit-based György Kemény were those who devoted more attention to the Hungarian victims of Pittsburgh blast furnaces and Western Pennsylvania coal mines than any of their fellow poets. After portraying the contemporary social scene, we will quote some of their relevant poetry, which depicts well the wretched lives of these early-20th-century immigrants from Hungary.