Language and Literature paper by Basa, Enikő M.
DiasporaThen and Now: Multiethnic Reverberations
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
Writers, and certainly Hungarian writers, have confronted the past in order to argue for a better future for the nation. Today, this is often means addressing the geographically fragmented reality of the Hungarian community. That is, the diaspora. Yet, the concept is not wholly new. Hungarian as a multiethnic nation had an internal diaspora before the Treaty of Trianon and an external one following it. I will examine the approaches of several writers to this problem.
Pál Závada sees a Slovak "diaspora" of sorts in his Jadviga párnája. Péter Huncik examines the conficts in the new nation states that thrust Hungarians into diaspora without the movement of populations. In Romania, Béla Markó's Költők koszorúja addresses the problem of cultural maintenance within different cultural environments. This seems to me the central problem of the Diaspora: while remaining culturally and (sometimes) linguistically part of the mother country, to come to an understanding of geographical and political realities that do not, and never have, reflected on ethnic or linguistic borders. Authors can transcend political borders and point to a cultural commonwealth that embraces the diversity of modern writing.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Enikő Molnár Basa received her PhD degree in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and is the author of a monograph on Petőfi (Twayne) as well as the editor of the Hungarian series within the Twayne World Authors series. She served as Guest Editor for volume, Hungarian Literature in the Review of National Literature series. Currently she is contributing to The Literary Encyclopedia on several authors ranging from Balassi to modern writers. Over the years, Dr. Basa has published numerous articles, contributed to books, and presented papers at scholarly venues such as the Modern Language Association, the American, International and Southern Comparative Literature Associations, the American Hungarian Educators Association and the Hungarian Studies Association of Canada. She is the Executive Director of the AHEA. eniko.basa@verizon.net