Past Abstracts
1,037 abstracts found
Does Bach Belong to Everyone? The Connection Between Apocalypse and Racism in Krasznahorkai’s Works
Language/LiteratureThe presentation examines how extremist views, racism, neo-Nazism and xenophobia become manifestations of the apocalypse of our times in László Krasznahorkai's 2021 novel ’Herscht 07769’. The story is set in a small town in Thuringia, Germany, where a radical, nationalist, neo-Nazi group, led by 'The Boss', appropriates anything deemed 'German enough' (beer, sports, scientists, artists, etc.) for the national spirit and consciousness. The group of course hates and rejects anything that is ’racially foreign’. This is how the universal composer Johann Sebastian Bach can also become a national symbol in the novel’s world. The slightly slow-witted but well-intentioned protagonist becomes a killing angel who settles scores with gang members and evil itself, thus trying to restore metaphysical order to the world. For him, Bach represents order and the perfect world. Krasznahorkai presents extreme nationalist views and xenophobic tendencies in a small-town setting, however, the issues raised point towards global problems. Nevertheless, he does not provide a reassuring answer on how the world and individuals can confront these extreme phenomena. The fact that this problem is not confined to one particular area, but is present all over the world, including the United States, is also evident in Krasznahorkai's
essay 'Someone's Knocking at My Door', which describes the origins of racism and was first
published in the Anxiety column of the New York Times in 2013.
essay 'Someone's Knocking at My Door', which describes the origins of racism and was first
published in the Anxiety column of the New York Times in 2013.
Domestic Music-Making in the Concert Hall: György Kurtág’s ‘Játékok’ for Four Hands within the Socio-Cultural Context of Socialist Hungary
Music/FolkloreThis presentation explores György Kurtág’s four-hand miniatures from Játékok (Games), Volumes IV and VIII. Critical reception to recent performances of the miniatures given by Kurtág and his wife, both of whom were well into their eighties, generally highlighted the concerts' perceived "cuteness." The reviews appreciated the couple’s vulnerability and comfort with each other on the stages of major concert halls across Western Europe and the United States, yet neglected to acknowledge the music itself. The couple’s first performance of the miniatures in Budapest in 1979, on the other hand, stunned their critics into silence. This presentation seeks to explore this difference in critical reaction: the Kurtágs’ performance of Játékok for four hands, within their original socio-cultural context,carried evocative overtones which are not evident to the present-day, non-native Hungarian speaking world. The presentation tracks the trajectory of Kurtág’s public image within the cultural scene of socialist Hungary, with a particular focus on the artistic activities of the New Music Studio, the Apartment Theatre, and the Music of Our Time Festival. The presentation offers a selection of case studies, reflecting on the literary and musical allusions of the miniatures, and their influence on the Kurtágs’ performance practice.
Domján József and Qi Baishi, Friends Forever
Music/FolkloreJózsef Domján [1907 – 1992] is one of Hungary’s most famous and prolific artists in the 20th Century. His works are in the collections of many major museums in North America, but also around the world. Domján was born into a poor working class family in Budapest and due to his exceptional talent and pure luck, he became a recognized artists before WWII and following, during the Communist regime. He has received the Munkáçsy and Kossuth Prizes and In 1956, after the fall of the Revolution, he immigrated with his family to the West, eventually settling in Tuxedo Park, New York.
Interesting and noteworthy, that in 1955 he was invited to visit, exhibit and study in China by the Mao Ce-Tung government. This visit resulted in 15 exhibitions in important Chinese cities and a study tour, which was a determining influence on his works throughout his life. During this visit, he was fortunate to meet and work with one of the most important Chinese artists, Qi Baishi [1864 – 1957]. The impact of Domján’s visit to China and his meetings with Qi Baishi are important part of his artistic imagery and symbolisms, even in his latest works.
In 2014 October, the Peking Hungarian Cultural Center, Balassi Institute, opened a successful exhibition of Domján Art and entitled the exhibition Domján and Qi Baishi, Friends Forever. In fact, it is true, since Domján is the only Hungarian artists who met Qi and has carried the reminiscence of these meetings throughout his life, thereby creating a connections between Chinese and Hungarian contemporary art. In 1955 Qi Baishi was already 92 years old and he passed away 2 years later.
To fully understand Domján Art, we must consider the importance of his visit to China. The presentation will focus on the 2014 exhibition in Peking and how important the 1955 five months study and exhibition tour was to one and only Hungarian artist who had a chance to visit China during the Mao Ce-Tung regime.
Interesting and noteworthy, that in 1955 he was invited to visit, exhibit and study in China by the Mao Ce-Tung government. This visit resulted in 15 exhibitions in important Chinese cities and a study tour, which was a determining influence on his works throughout his life. During this visit, he was fortunate to meet and work with one of the most important Chinese artists, Qi Baishi [1864 – 1957]. The impact of Domján’s visit to China and his meetings with Qi Baishi are important part of his artistic imagery and symbolisms, even in his latest works.
In 2014 October, the Peking Hungarian Cultural Center, Balassi Institute, opened a successful exhibition of Domján Art and entitled the exhibition Domján and Qi Baishi, Friends Forever. In fact, it is true, since Domján is the only Hungarian artists who met Qi and has carried the reminiscence of these meetings throughout his life, thereby creating a connections between Chinese and Hungarian contemporary art. In 1955 Qi Baishi was already 92 years old and he passed away 2 years later.
To fully understand Domján Art, we must consider the importance of his visit to China. The presentation will focus on the 2014 exhibition in Peking and how important the 1955 five months study and exhibition tour was to one and only Hungarian artist who had a chance to visit China during the Mao Ce-Tung regime.
Double Testimonies: Antifascism and Anticommunism as Modes of Historical Representation by Sándor Márai and Imre Kertész
Cultural Studies/ArtsSándor Márai and Imre Kertész, both involved in communism as youngsters, were relentless opponents of Marxism-Leninism in their thirties, and they kept refusing it for decades. On the basis of personal experiences, they both adjudicated fascism and also communism substantially misleading ideologies, and maintained that these two different ideologies were very similar in their tyrannical collectivism and abusive informational methods. Márai and Kertész both composed literary works coping with depressing memories of fascist and communist political systems, and experimented with narrating strict historical facts in a literary manner. Explained in several essays and talks, Kertész regarded Márai as an ideal, believing that his predecessor’s oeuvre represents a proper ethical way of being “polgár”, bound to a partly real, partly imagined community of Bürgertum or bourgeoisie (understood in a positive sense). On the one hand, Kertész insisted that lying is a basic condition of fascist and also communist structures. On the other hand, he declared that independent literature has the ability to tell the truth via fiction. In my paper, I aim to investigate antifascism and anticommunism as modes of historical representation. Targeting such important books as Memoir of Hungary by Sándor Márai, as well as The Union Jack by Imre Kertész, I conduct an inquiry into the cultural, ethical and aesthetical problems of their autobiographical and biofictional works.
Downplaying Modernism: The translation of A Scots Quair into Skócia lánya: politics, publishing and dialects in the Hungarian translation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s fiction
Language/LiteratureMy paper offers an exploration of the Hungarian translation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel A Scots Quair [Scots for ‘A Scottish Book,’ 1934], which appeared in Hungarian as Skócia lánya (1960). A canonical work of Scottish literary modernism, the trilogy focuses on the life of a Scottish woman in agrarian North East Scotland in the first three decades of the 20th century, using a synthetic, non-regionally bound, Scots language invented by Grassic Gibbon. Translated into some European languages in the late 20th century, historical translation studies note that the Hungarian version was the earliest among them. This presentation offers an exploration of the political context of British novels’ translation and publication in post-1956 Hungary, which duly reflects the cultural and aesthetic preferences of the period. Furthermore, the paper will analyse the linguistic solutions employed by the translator Klára Szöllősy to the challenges offered by the non-standard use of language.
Dualistic Csárdáses and Gratuitous Gypsies: Hungarianism in Strauss and Kálmán
Music/FolkloreJohann Strauss II’s Der Zigeunerbaron (1885) depicted Hungary as an “exotic land of mystery” defined by fanciful conceptions of the “Gypsy” and “Hungarian fire” (Baranello 2013). For Hungarians who saw Hungary as more cosmopolitan than “exotic,” such an image was problematic. This presentation compares the treatment of Hungarianness and Gypsiness in Zigeunerbaron with that in two works by one internationally successful Hungarian composer, Imre/Emmerich Kálmán (1882-1953). In two of his most successful works, Die Csárdásfürstin (1915) and Gräfin Mariza (1924), Kálmán both satisfied the Viennese audience’s appetite for “Hungarian fire” and transformed the depiction of the Hungarian onstage into a sophisticated European type that better fit the Hungarian self-image. Rather than conflating Gypsy and peasant into one exotic “Hungarian” stereotype, Kálmán used plot and music to highlight class conflicts and urban/rural contrasts. Showpieces in both works provide the stereotypes international audiences expect, but their framing, musical as well as dramatic, foregrounds a cosmopolitan twentieth-century Hungarian identity that was absent from Strauss’s work. Adjustments made in these works for their presentation on the Hungarian stage are also revealing, particularly as Gräfin Mariza became Marica grofnő: Hungarian translator/librettist Zsolt Harsányi’s transformation of “Komm mit nach Varaždin” into “Szép város Kolózsvár” offers a window into nostalgia for pre-World War I Hungary, as it celebrates the Hungarianness of a city that became part of Romania after the war. Mariza combines a “goulash stew” of Hungarian imagery for the international audience, musical topoi from all over, and Hungarian nostalgia for territories lost.
Economic, Social, and Aesthetic Desires Meet on the Dance Floor in Transylvanian Villages
Music/FolkloreThe social and musical/dance negotiation that is rural dance depends on a system of group and individual interactions and dependencies. For the band, bonds are based on skills, trust, and a joint need to produce an economically viable unit. For dancers, the situation is based more on developing social capital. For both, a large element of personal pride and enjoyment is a part of it, despite and at the same time as the endeavor meets these other more practical goals.
Though (mostly) Roma bands and villagers both need and depend on each other, their relationship is complicated and fraught through ethnic differences and often a lack of trust in day-to-day relationships. Quigley and Varga (2020) have identified many elements of these discords, but also how they can be transcended, as band and dancers strive together to create the dance, in a process they call “choreomusical intimacy.”
This paper considers musical and dance components of this moment, looking at the role of each member of the improvising community—all three musical parts and their contributions to the choices and actions of the dancer, the dancer him/herself, and assembled viewers, both potential participants and observers.
Then, using analysis, archival video, and video from dance events in Transylvania and elsewhere, as well as interviews with participants, we look at moments in the dance where this unity seems to evolve, exploring musical and dance gestures that occasion it, for example, as Quigley and Varga suggest, being in time, hitting the beat perfectly together.
Though (mostly) Roma bands and villagers both need and depend on each other, their relationship is complicated and fraught through ethnic differences and often a lack of trust in day-to-day relationships. Quigley and Varga (2020) have identified many elements of these discords, but also how they can be transcended, as band and dancers strive together to create the dance, in a process they call “choreomusical intimacy.”
This paper considers musical and dance components of this moment, looking at the role of each member of the improvising community—all three musical parts and their contributions to the choices and actions of the dancer, the dancer him/herself, and assembled viewers, both potential participants and observers.
Then, using analysis, archival video, and video from dance events in Transylvania and elsewhere, as well as interviews with participants, we look at moments in the dance where this unity seems to evolve, exploring musical and dance gestures that occasion it, for example, as Quigley and Varga suggest, being in time, hitting the beat perfectly together.
Edouard Reményi: Fiddler, Patriot, Spy (?)
Music/FolkloreThe violinist Edouard Reményi was one of the most colorful figures in 19th-century music. A significant virtuoso best known as the man who “discovered” the young Johannes Brahms, Reményi has gone down in history as somewhat of a charlatan: flamboyant, opportunistic, and deceitful — a characterization propagated by his contemporary Joseph Joachim, and, to a large degree, by Johannes Brahms. Joachim’s picture of Reményi entered the Brahms biographies, and has persisted to the present day. But is it true? In this talk, I will examine Reményi’s venturesome personality and adventurous life in the turbulent years before he met Brahms, including his life as a Hungarian revolutionary and his sojourn in America in 1850.
Concurrently, I will tell the story of Reményi’s involvement with a group of Hungarian exiles led by Count László Újházi, who sailed to America and, with President Zachary Taylor’s personal support, established the colony of New Buda in Decatur County, Iowa. Reményi accompanied the exiled patriots, who had fought against the Austrians and were hailed in America as heroes of democracy. Arriving in Boston, Remény gave a high-profile concert tour, beginning in New York and ending in New Orleans, to raise money for the exiles. Returning to Europe, he was listed as a “politically dangerous” member of the Hungarian "Umsturzpartei," and wanted by the police. It was then that he met the young Johannes Brahms, who accompanied him on a famous journey to visit his Hungarian compatriots Joachim and Liszt.
Concurrently, I will tell the story of Reményi’s involvement with a group of Hungarian exiles led by Count László Újházi, who sailed to America and, with President Zachary Taylor’s personal support, established the colony of New Buda in Decatur County, Iowa. Reményi accompanied the exiled patriots, who had fought against the Austrians and were hailed in America as heroes of democracy. Arriving in Boston, Remény gave a high-profile concert tour, beginning in New York and ending in New Orleans, to raise money for the exiles. Returning to Europe, he was listed as a “politically dangerous” member of the Hungarian "Umsturzpartei," and wanted by the police. It was then that he met the young Johannes Brahms, who accompanied him on a famous journey to visit his Hungarian compatriots Joachim and Liszt.
Educating in an International Environment: The Role of the Fulbright Commission in Budapest
Education/Social SciencesEffective November 1, 2012, I have been appointed the Executive Director of the Hungarian-American Fulbright Commission for Educational Exchange.As the Director of the Fulbright Commission in Hungary, I expect to build on the heritage of excellence initiated by Dr. Huba Brückner during the first twenty years of the Commission. I plan to expand Fulbright's reach to traditionally underrepresented scholars from rural areas, the Roma community as well as to people with different disabilities. Furthermore, strengthening ties with private sector donors as well as establishing new relationships with American universities are both important objectives for me.
Egy kezdeményezés kiteljesedése
Science/EconomicsA kommunista diktatúra 1989-es bukása után Romániában hatalmas energiák szabadultak fel, társadalmi, kulturális élet terén. Negyven év lemaradását kellett bepótolni. Óceánon átívelő segítségnyujtás a közös munka gyönyörű példája az 1991-ben elkezdődött és ma is tartó Torockó-program.
A Torockó-program egy ifjúsági szabadidőközpont létrehozásával kezdődött. Az évek folyamán kiteljesedett Torockó népi építészetének kutatásával, faluturizmussal, múzeumfelújítással, galéria létesítésével amely időszakos kiállítások rendezésének biztosít keretet. Az immár húsz éve tartó munka számos torockói tárgyú könyv megjelenését is lehetővé tette.
A Torockó-program egy ifjúsági szabadidőközpont létrehozásával kezdődött. Az évek folyamán kiteljesedett Torockó népi építészetének kutatásával, faluturizmussal, múzeumfelújítással, galéria létesítésével amely időszakos kiállítások rendezésének biztosít keretet. Az immár húsz éve tartó munka számos torockói tárgyú könyv megjelenését is lehetővé tette.
Egyszerűsített magyar nyelvtan: videók magyartanuláshoz
Education/Social SciencesJelen prezentáció bemutatja a "Hungarian Videos" (HuVi) nevű Erasmus+ projektet, amelyben a Hamburgi Egyetem, a helsinki Finn-Magyar Társaság és a Helsinki Egyetem vesz részt. A projekt célja A1-B1 nyelvi szintnek megfelelő innovatív nyelvtanoktató videók készítése a magyart mint idegen nyelvet tanulók számára. Az élőszereplős és az animációs videók tíz, a nyelvtanulás során nehézséget okozó témát dolgoznak fel, mint például a szórend, megszólítások, helyhatározóragok, tárgyeset, többes szám és a kiejtés. A témák kiválasztásának alapját egy finnországi magyartanár-továbbképzés eredményei, valamint egy németországi szakmai fórumon elhangzott magyartanári vélemények adják. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy a finn és német anyanyelvű diákok számára kezdő szinten a fent említett témák jelentik a legnagyobb kihívást a nyelvtanulás során. Az audiovizuális tananyagok ingyenesen elérhetők lesznek online bárki számára, aki érdeklődik a magyar nyelv tanulása, illetve tanítása iránt. A magyar nyelvű videókhoz magyar, finn, német és angol felirat is készül. A videók használhatóak informális oktatás során, a felnőttképzésben A1-B1 szinten, de egyetemi szintű nyelvészeti kurzusokon is, például fonológiaórán szemléltetőeszköz lehet az animált kiejtési videó. A videók felirat nélkül pedig B1-es szintű kurzusokon adhatók otthoni feladatként, majd ezt követően tükrözött osztálytermi (flipped classroom) módszerrel lehet őket feldolgozni. A videók funkcionális megközelítést alkalmaznak, rövid dialógusokon keresztül mutatják be az egyes nyelvtani elemek használatát életszerű szituációkban, ezzel gyakorlati kifejezéseket biztosítanak a tanulók számára, amelyeket használni tudnak valós helyzetekben. Az előadók egy konkrét példával – az igekötőket bemutató videóval – illusztrálják a projektet és javaslatokat tesznek arra, hogyan lehet azt különböző oktatási környezetekben felhasználni.
Együtthaladó – Oktatási program a Magyarországon tanuló migráns gyermekek számára
Education/Social SciencesA Miskolci Egyetemen kidolgozott Együtthaladó program fő célja a magyar közoktatásban tanuló migráns gyermekek magyar nyelvi kompetenciáinak fejlesztése annak érdekében, hogy integráltan oktathatóvá, az iskolai tananyagban osztálytársaikkal „együtthaladó”-vá váljanak, továbbá a migráns gyermekeket tanító pedagógusok szakmai felkészítése. A magyar közoktatásban jelenleg nincs olyan tankönyvcsalád, amely figyelembe venné a nem magyar anyanyelvű diákok eltérő magyar nyelvi kompetenciáit, s interkulturális pedagógiai programmal is csak kevés iskola rendelkezik. Ezért az Együtthaladó program keretében olyan magyarnyelv-oktatási segédanyagokat készítettünk a 11–14 éves korosztály számára és jelenleg készítünk a 9–10 éveseknek, amely három (A1–B1) nyelvtudási szinten használható, illeszkedik a Nemzeti Alaptantervhez, s a matematika, biológia-környezetismeret, magyar nyelvtan, magyar irodalom tantárgyak tartalmi alapját használja fel a magyar nyelvi fejlesztéshez. Előadásunkban bemutatjuk a program tartalomalapú, nyelvközpontú oktatási szemléletét, a segédanyagok társadalmi-nyelvi integrációt segítő feladattípusait és a migránsok kultúrájának, anyanyelvének megőrzését célzó feladattípusainkat. A programot eddig négy iskolában, különböző tanítási módszerekkel próbálták ki, ennek is köszönhetően 2011-ben elnyerte az Európai Nyelvi Díjat. Email:
Elizabeth of Hungary in the Romances of Wolfram von Eschenbach and Albrecht von Scharfenberg
Language/LiteratureThe figure of Sigune in Wolfram von Eschenbach's early thirteenth century romance Parzival is surely a direct reference to Elizabeth of Hungary who was engaged to be married to the oldest son of Hermann I of Thuringia, Wolfram's patron. Hermann's son, also named Hermann, died before the marriage could take place. Elizabeth married Hermann's second son, Ludwig. In the text, the young Sigune is in love with Schionatulander (le jeune de la lande, the youth from the country). Sadly, Schionatulander dies. The story is an exact parallel of the experience of the young Elizabeth at Hermann's court at the Wartburg and she would have been present while Wolfram was composing the work and most certainly knew the author. Moreover, the name Sigune itself might be better interpreted as Hungarian word rather than as French for cousin. This paper examines the evidence for reading Sigune as a character based on Elizabeth of Hungary as present in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and his Titurel as well as in der jüngere Titurel by Albrecht von Scharfenberg.
Ellen Key’s Visit to Budapest, 1905
Language/Literature“The Swedish Pallas” and “ Radical Europe’s aunt” needs no introduction: a celebrity of her time, Ellen Key (1849-1926) was a writer, essayist, teacher, educator, debater, literary critic, lecturer and the founder of Swedish interior design. A friend to renowned authors, painters and scholars from Scandinavia and all over the world, she played a central role in the emergence of the Det Moderna Genombrottet [‘The Modern Breakthrough’], an influential movement in Scandinavian naturalism and debating literature which replaced romanticism toward the end of the 19th century. Not long after her world-famous book, The Century of the Child, was published, Key wrote the fairly controversial book, Love and Marriage. The negative critical reception this book received in Sweden prompted her to embark upon on a lecture tour around Europe. Other than visiting Berlin, Vienna and Prague, in March, 1905, she held two talks in Budapest, Hungary. The reception of her lectures was mixed: her female audience exalted her views while men disparaged her work. This lecture provides a historical overview of Ellen Key’s work while also analyzing her visit to Budapest and subsequent reception in Hungary based on the contemporary press. The broader aim of this examination is to answer why Hungarian research literature exclusively views Ellen Key as an educator and the author of The Century of the Child when her work extended far beyond either role.
Embodiment, Violence, and Intertextuality in Anna Szabó T.’s <i>Szabadulógyakorlat</i>
Language/LiteratureThe presentation focuses on Szabadulógyakorlat (2020), a short story collection by Hungarian poet, translator, and short story writer Anna Szabó T. Most reviews highlight the inherent musicality of the collection, the genre-bending nature of some of the pieces, or the volume’s thematic preoccupation with affects such as desire and shame, but most elide Szabadulógyakorlat's engagement with female embodiment in the face of brutality. The characters who populate the stories are mostly women of various ages, living in differing settings and family structures, in diverging temporal frames, but, as I demonstrate, the primary concern of the characters is to survive the quotidian violence directed at them, be it physical, sexual, emotional, epistemic, or linguistic. While the stories “Három női történet” and “Visszafogott” reinterpret Ágnes’s character and narrative from János Arany’s “Ágnes asszony” (1853), I argue that stories such as “Csupaszdomb,” “Isten kéje,” and “Holló,” although obliquely and implicitly, offer a revision of László Németh’s novel Iszony (1947) through their evocation of the female body in pain and confined to intimate yet suffocating settings such as the marital bed or the kitchen. I trace the significance of such places relying on cultural geographer Jon Anderson’s formulation of places of various scales, ranging from human skin to the wider socio-cultural environment, and I argue that Szabó T.’s volume can be read as the reinterpretation of both Arany’s 19th-century ballad and Németh’s 20th-century novel insofar as it reconfigures the silence and suffering of its female characters.
Embracing the Challenges of a Transatlantic Life With the Help of Such Cognitive Tools as Mental Time Travel and Mental Imagery
Education/Social SciencesMental time travel, the cognitive ability to project oneself backward and forward in time, alongside mental imagery, the process of creating vivid mental representations, are crucial cognitive constructs in understanding how individuals interpret past experiences and envision future possibilities in our exponentially changing world as in the interferences between the Hungarian and American cultures. This presentation examines how these interlaced abilities contribute to one’s emotional resilience and psychological well-being. Recent findings, including Suddendorf et al. (2009) explore how episodic memory and prospective thinking, which are central to mental time travel, enable individuals to derive meaning from past events and construct adaptive future-oriented goals, hence enhancing one’s fitness in social settings. Additionally, the findings of D'Argembeau et al. (2016) highlight the role of mental imagery in amplifying the emotional intensity and motivational impact of these temporal projections, thus providing individuals with a sense of agency and purpose. Research suggests that individuals who are adept at using mental time travel and imagery may be better equipped to cope with stress, maintain a positive outlook, and engage in proactive problem-solving. Therefore, these insights have significant implications for educational interventions. This presentation thus invites further dialogue on the current research findings that incorporate these cognitive tools to reinforce education and EFL classroom practices, with a particular focus on transnationalism and one's multiple selves. The findings address aspects such as communication, collaboration, and critical and creative thinking and their application in EFL classroom activities to enhance one’s fitness in cross-cultural settings.
Emigration in the Aftermath of the Trianon Treaty and the US Immigration Restrictions Act
History/Political ScienceThe post-World War I era featured new borders in Central and Eastern Europe under the Trianon Treaty as well as the passage of restrictive immigration laws in the United States in 1921 and 1924. While scholars have examined the effects on Hungarian migration of the Trianon Treaty and U.S. quotas separately, rarely do we consider the effect that these two major post-war developments had on each other happening at the same time. Especially in borderlands areas, people’s home villages might not end up in the state they identified with nationally. This had tremendous effects on the likeliness of migrants already in the US to return to Europe. It also closed off the option of going to the United States for many individuals at the very comment that they might be seeking to move because of new political borders. This paper will examine the interplay between the Trianon borders and American immigration restriction legislation in the migration decisions of Hungarians in the 1920s.
Emil Kiss, a Hungarian Success Story
History/Political ScienceAccording to the Annual Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, in fiscal year 1899, 13,777 Hungarian speakers immigrated
to the USA, of whom 17.6% settled in New York State. One of the immigrants was Emil Kiss, who like most of the immigrants, arrived penniless. This paper will look at his start as a ticket agent to his founding of a private bank in 1903. Both businesses prospered. The accomplishments of his travel agency will be shown by the advertising placed in various English and Hungarian language newspapers, while the bank’s success will be evaluated on the quarterly balance sheets that were submitted to the Superintendent of Banking in New York. His bank through various mergers still exists.
Though he never married, he was not all work. Emil Kiss was an active member in several Hungarian social and fraternal organizations. Post WWI he was one of the founders of the American Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and in this capacity in 1923 he wrote an article for the American Academy of Political and Social Science advocating that “debtor countries present and future capacities to pay” should determine the size of war reparations. Kiss died in 1930, and in his will he left a Munkacsy painting to the New York Public Library and funds to several New York institutions.
This paper is not only a testimony of an immigrant's success story but also of his trials and tribulations in achieving his goals.
to the USA, of whom 17.6% settled in New York State. One of the immigrants was Emil Kiss, who like most of the immigrants, arrived penniless. This paper will look at his start as a ticket agent to his founding of a private bank in 1903. Both businesses prospered. The accomplishments of his travel agency will be shown by the advertising placed in various English and Hungarian language newspapers, while the bank’s success will be evaluated on the quarterly balance sheets that were submitted to the Superintendent of Banking in New York. His bank through various mergers still exists.
Though he never married, he was not all work. Emil Kiss was an active member in several Hungarian social and fraternal organizations. Post WWI he was one of the founders of the American Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and in this capacity in 1923 he wrote an article for the American Academy of Political and Social Science advocating that “debtor countries present and future capacities to pay” should determine the size of war reparations. Kiss died in 1930, and in his will he left a Munkacsy painting to the New York Public Library and funds to several New York institutions.
This paper is not only a testimony of an immigrant's success story but also of his trials and tribulations in achieving his goals.
End of the Line? The Changing Geography of Railways between the Alföld and Carpathians
History/Political ScienceThis paper traces the history of the railway between Debrecen and Kőrösmező in the Máramaros region of the northeastern Carpathians, demonstrating how such a railway served to link the people and natural resources of northeastern Hungary to the markets of the Alföld and Budapest. Originally constructed between Debrecen and Máramarossziget in the period 1868–1872, the Hungarian Northeastern Railway (Magyar Északkeleti Vasút) made it possible for the salt and timber of Máramaros and the fruit products of Szatmár and the Érmellék to be transported quickly and cheaply to markets in Debrecen and Budapest, and in exchange allowed manufactured and consumer goods to reach the people of northeastern Hungary. Nationalized in 1890 and made part of the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV), the line was extended north to the Hungarian-Austro-Galician frontier at Kőrösmező. Passenger traffic along the route facilitated seamless travel between Budapest and the northeastern Carpathians.
World War I and the resultant dismemberment of Hungary dealt a crippling blow to the unity of this railway line. The paper continues by recounting the fate of the line in the interwar period, now split between three countries; changes brought about by the First and Second Vienna Awards, including reincorporation into the MÁV network; and the post-World War II situation. The paper concludes with an outline of today’s circumstances. In its way, this paper sketches how a railway can build links between Hungarians and how these links can be torn asunder but re-established over time.
World War I and the resultant dismemberment of Hungary dealt a crippling blow to the unity of this railway line. The paper continues by recounting the fate of the line in the interwar period, now split between three countries; changes brought about by the First and Second Vienna Awards, including reincorporation into the MÁV network; and the post-World War II situation. The paper concludes with an outline of today’s circumstances. In its way, this paper sketches how a railway can build links between Hungarians and how these links can be torn asunder but re-established over time.
Endre Ady–New Perspectives and New Ideas after the Compromise
Language/LiteratureWhile 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.”
