Language and Literature paper by Basa, Enikő M.
Endre Ady--New Perspectives and New Ideas after the Compromise
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
While Endre Ady was born ten years after the significant date of 1867, he symbolized and expressed the new era that was ushered in by the Compromise. He was keenly aware of the social problems not solved by the political compromise and dealt with these in his journalistic work. In his poetry, he sought to bring a new voice to the table, one that married Western forms with native traditions. I will examine his poetry rather than his journalistic work, and focus on the ways in which he revolutionized Hungarian poetry. His 1908 volume, Uj versek, laid down the challenge and was a manifesto for a new voice that broke with the Romantic/Classical tradition of Arany and Petőfi. He was a voice of the future in a society that clung to the past. But it is as a consummate poet that he earned his fame. Ady’s love of the Hungarian people was only one of his themes. His love poems are striking in their originality and their mystical approach to physical love. His religious poems, which seemed blasphemous to many, reveal his search for God “who is at the bottom of all things, to whom all the bells toll and on whose left I, alas, sit.”
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
PhD University of North Carolina in Comparative Literature. Taught at Washington, DC area universities then on the staff of the Library of Congress. Publictions: Sándor Petőfi (Twayne) and Hungarian Literature (Review of National Literatures), numerous articles and addresses at professional organizations snd encyclopaedia entried. Founder: AHEA, Founding member Southern Comparative Literature Association;
Established Hungarian Discussion Group/Forum at the Modern Language Assocaiton.