Past Abstracts
1,037 abstracts found
Failure to Thrive: The Frustration of Human Flourishing in the Provincial Hungary of Móricz’s Az Isten háta mögött
Language/LiteratureWhen Zsigmond Móricz took it upon himself in 1911 to revive some of the themes addressed in 1856 by Gustave Flaubert in Madame Bovary, he did so not with the intention of emulating Flaubert’s by then classic novel, but rather of portraying the deplorable gap that separated the middle class of early twentieth rural Hungary from that of nineteenth-century provincial France, An investigation of the fate of Móricz’s characters in Az Isten háta mögött reveals the author’s conclusions regarding the long path that lay before Hungarian society in order to assure its bourgeoisie of the means necessary to live an acceptably good life. In fact the empty and meaningless nature of Veresné’s existence in particular seems calculated to make Flaubert’s Emma Bovary seem like more of a self-serving hedonist than a lovesick romantic. In analyzing the interactions between Móricz’s characters and their provincial environment in Az Isten háta mögött, I will show the limitations Móricz saw as informing the efforts of the provincial Hungarian middle class to “exert their own particular agency,” in spite of the increased political agency afforded the Hungarian nation as a state during the age of the Dual Monarchy. Rural life in particular reveals itself in this novel as a barren landscape of failed ambitions and wrecked hopes of anything resembling a life worth living.
Faith, Satire, and Humor: the Contemporary Author and Poet János Lackfi
Language/LiteratureChildren’s author, translator, religious poet, social critic and satirist, and a laugh-out-loud funny guy: exactly who is János Lackfi? All of the above. Born in 1971, Lackfi is a prolific writer, a master of pop culture, winner of the József Attila award, a translator of French poetry, inexhaustible rewriter of traditional classic poems, the father of six children, and quite a popular author in Hungary today. Over thirty books written, over a hundred performances each year, off-the-cuff postings on Facebook multiple times a day, this man just cannot help spewing forth poems and language from his brain and sharing them with the rest of the world. This paper provides an overall synopsis of his literary career, an examination of two of his funniest works, “Ilyenek a magyarok? [Hungarians are like this…]” and “Ilyenek MÉG a magyarok? [Are Hungarians STILL like this…],” and an analysis of “#Jóéjtpuszi [hashtag Goodnight Kiss],” a collection of his religious poems. Time will tell whether he makes it into the Hungarian literary canon, but for now, sit back, relax, and get ready for some gut-busting laughter as well as some thoughtful theological musings, or just enjoy the sounds of alliteration, allusion, imagery, and rhymes as János Lackfi plays with language.
Family Documentary Lore – Reading a 1970s-1980s Correspondence between Jerusalem and Nagyvárad
Language/LiteratureDocumentary literature is a mega-genre including diary, memoir, jubilee/regional book, minutes, and correspondence. This literature does not aim at artistry and its writers are far from acclaimed authors. Rather, they come from all social strata and wish to pass on their experiences and knowledge as people who lived through meaningful events and as part of their community/nation. In the Jewish-Israeli context, this motivation is amplified by the magnanimous events that befell the Jewish people in the last century and a half. My presentation offers a reading in the letters of my parents, Israeli immigrants from Erdély/Transylvania, to their sisters (each had one) in Nagyvárad/Oradea in Romania of the late 1970s and early 1980s (my paternal aunt later returned me the letters). The letters depict my parents' lives as eternal immigrants raising Israeli-born (sabra) children, and their longing for their past families and for the Várad/Erdély that once was. The very last of them bluntly tell their anguish about their deteriorating health. In my reading of the letters I wish to illustrate their nature and traits as documentary materials and their contribution to understanding Hungarian-Jewish immigrants, mostly Holocaust survivors, living in Israel of the 1950s-1970s. I shall also deal with the ways in which my reading re-writes the letters through a combination of literary-cultural research and personal memorial journey.
Fates and Heterotopias: Resistance, Retaliation and a Historic Turning Point in the Sopronkőhida Prison 1944–1945
History/Political ScienceIn times of crisis and transition, such as were the last years of World War II, it seems that everything is falling apart: political systems are collapsing, the fabric of society is torn apart, resistance and retaliation emerges, masses of people are forced to move away from their homes against their will. But is it possible to locate a geographically existing space in the tragic and dramatic turmoil which represents the crystallization of an era, hence provides the intersection of historical periods that is researchable and revealing to the historian? My paper attempts to integrate traditional historical methods from space theory, based on Michel Foucault’s heterotopology, and demonstrate how the Sopronkőhida prison has become such a historically essential space in 1944–1945. Firstly, the Court Martial of the Chief of the Hungarian Royal Army’s General Staff occupied the prison at the end of 1944 and operated there until March 1945. The court martial brought those to trial there who were arrested for high treason, including resistance. Four former prime ministers, many military officers, civilians, resisters, partisans and priests were held in the Sopronkőhida prison until they were relocated to Germany. Subsequently, a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp was established in Sopronkőhida, in which tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers were detained and deported to the USSR. The dramatic turnaround of Sopronkőhida simultaneously symbolizes the fall of persons representing an era, the rise of others, and the loss of the sovereignty of the individual and society during totalitarian regimes.
Feasibility Challenges of the Suleyman’s Turbe Cultural-Tourism Center Project in Szigetvár
Science/EconomicsThe Suleyman's Türbe of Szigetvár is a historical monument with exceptional features, which was discovered by Norbert Pap and his research group of the University of Pécs. The strategic aim of the planned Cultural-Tourism Center is to be a strong bastion of cultural tourism in Baranya County, attracting 100,000 to 200,000 visitors to Hungary and internationally, which will operate in a self-sustaining way, creating jobs in the area and generating economic prosperity. During the planning of the Cultural-Tourism Center investment, a module-system component consisting of 3 main elements was created, which are: Central investment, which allows the presentation and visit of the narrowly defined Cultural-Tourist Center. This includes the use of basic, existing infrastructure. Additional investment, including the proposal of the City of Szigetvár for the implementation of the Visitor Center to be established in the immediate vicinity of the Cultural-Tourist Center, and the implementation of the Visitor Center connecting them with the Cultural-Tourism Center. Background investments required to create a complex tourism product, including the connection of historical monuments in Szigetvár and its surroundings with a memorial tour route to the Visitor Center and the Cultural-Tourism Center. The study aims to provide government decision-making with information on project-based approaches to project implementation, thereby assisting government decision-making. In addition, it gives insights about the challenges of a project management approach and the tools that will help in the planning process of other similar investments.
Fekecs, egy rendhagyó menekült
History/Political ScienceAz Egyesült Államok által befogadott több, mint 40000 ötvenhatos menekült több-kevesebb sikerrel beilleszkedett az amerikai társadalomba. Fekecs Miklós (máshol Mihály, Michael) (1935-1960) azonban rossz okból került az újságok lapjaira az új hazájában. Az előadás azt vizsgálja, hogy hogyan vezetett az útja az 50-es évek közepén a rendőrtiszti képzéstől az ÁVH általi letartóztatásán, elítélésén és börtönbüntetésén – Jobbágy Domokos, a később szintén menekült zárkatársaként - keresztül 1956-os meneküléséig, majd bűnözővé válásáig New Jersey államban. A szokásostól eltérő menekült sors vajon milyen hatással volt az 56-os menekültek megítélésére a magyarok és az amerikaiak között?
Ferenc Molnár — The Refugee New Yorker
Language/Literature140 years ago Ferenc Neumann, a.k.a. Ferenc Molnár, the journalist, novelist, and most famously dramatist was born in Budapest on January 12, 1878. He changed his name in 1896 as a gesture of asserted nationalism claiming that as a Hungarian writer, he felt obliged to use a Hungarian pen name. Being of Jewish origin, he had no choice but to escape as a refugee from Nazi Europe. In 1940 he joined his third wife Lili Darvas in New York who fled a year earlier. In spite of his great fame Molnár, the refugee missed Hungary, his native language, the Hungarian stage. None of his works written in the USA after 1940 could compete with Liliom or with his other well known works. He suffered from homesickness, died of cancer in New York in 1952.
Ferenc Molnar’s Play “Liliom” Blooms Anew in “Carousel”
Language/LiteratureFerenc Molnar's masterpiece "Liliom" premiered in Budapest in 1909. It revived numerous times in various repertories and was filmed many times. Its musical version, "Carousel," by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein opened in 1945 on Broadway. It's movie version by 20th Century Fox was released in 1956. The play does not fade away; it bloom anew in the film as well as in the musical because of the protagonists imperishable human and artistic values. The musical relocates the amusement park scene from Europe to New England but not the character of the shiftless sharper but also a barker of pure heart.
Fieldwork in Hungarian Immigrant Communities — the Making of a Website
Cultural Studies/ArtsIn his slide show based presentation, Gergely Tóth will illustrate the history and transformation of some ethnic Hungarian communities, or neighborhoods, in the United States and some other areas of the world, and introduce his new website which displays permanent visible signs of Hungarian presence. Social clubs, Hungarian Houses, associations, churches, statues, memorial plates, street signs, all attest to the hard work of many who for various reasons had to leave Hungary in the past 120 years, and to their desire to create new homes in their adopted countries, in order to practice and maintain their old-world culture. This may be the first Hungarian site of this kind, encompassing as many different geographic regions as possible.
Financing Hungarian Innovation and Research
Science/EconomicsHungary has always been renowned for her creative scientists and innovators. Unfortunately, the country has been plagued by chronic underfunding of research projects. In order to create a stable source of research and innovation funds, in 2003 the Hungarian Government introduced a unique R&D finance system, an „innovation tax” which is collected into the state’s Research and Technology Innovation Fund. The paper will explain the rationale behind the National Innovation System and the business implications of the innovation tax. It will also cover the operation of the key government agency, The National Office for Research and Technology (NKTH), which has a central role in distributing the funds and also developing and implementing Hungary's science, technology and innovation policies. NKTH supports these activities through a complex system of calls for proposals. The national research and innovation funding scheme has been under constant media criticism, and corruption allegations have also surfaced. Political infighting resulted that the grant system has been suspended indefinitely in 2010. The author will cover case studies, success stories and failures.
The presentation is based on a series of articles the author published in the Hungarian weekly Élet és Irodalom.
The presentation is based on a series of articles the author published in the Hungarian weekly Élet és Irodalom.
Finding the Future in the Past: Péter Pázmány’s Felelet
History/Political ScienceThis paper examines the historical perspective articulated by Péter Pázmány, the future primate of Hungary, in the Felelet, his first major vernacular work, produced in answer to what he saw as the calumniation of Hungarian Catholicism by the preacher István Magyari. In this text, Pázmány offered an alternative providential explanation for the disaster of the Turkish conquest in sixteenth century Hungary. In his published work, Magyari had ascribed the Turkish invasion to divine chastisement of the Hungarian nation for the sins of its Catholics, particularly because of the idolatrous nature of Catholic worship. Drawing heavily on the Old Testament, Magyari had argued that Chosen People had been heavily punished for Idolatry on several occasions and suggested that only the pure religion of Hungary’s Lutherans had preserved a remnant of the old kingdom from the Turks. Pázmány’s text offered an alternative reading which linked the fall of the Hungarian kingdom to the advent of Lutheranism so that a realm which had stood for hundreds of years while the Catholic faith had been preserved was swiftly overthrown when heresy began to sap it from within. Not only does the text offer an alternative historical narrative but Pázmány engaged also with Magyari’s biblical examples. While accepting that idolatry was a feature of God’s anger with the chosen people (and of course denying any idolatrous component in Catholic worship), his discussion concentrated on the punishment of the Jews for the crime of innovation in religion, in effect for heresy. The implications of Pázmány’s argument was that by preserving the critical element of the Hungarian past, its Catholic identity, the nation could once find a future as God would assist in the turning back of the Turkish conquest.
Folk Dance and Music Camps in Transylvania as a Subject for Anthropological Research in Dance
Music/FolkloreThe paper aims to introduce Transylvanian folk dance and music camps investigated from a dance anthropological viewpoint. The main topic of the proposal is to present research done in three different summer camps, including the description of the aim of the event, the organizers, their goals, the participants, programs, day and night dance occasions. One week-term camp consists of several dance events such as rehearsals, the so-called táncház, dance houses, and folk taverns, folkkocsma during the nights. The campers learn the region specialized dances during the day in 3 groups: beginners’, intermediate, and advanced dancers’ cohorts. The dances are being taught by professional folk dancers, teachers who have deep knowledge in the specific dance practice. The táncház gives an opportunity for the pupils to practice the movements that they have acquired during the day. Besides, at the folk tavern, the participants can freely carouse by singing, dancing, drinking and making conversations. Since 2014, I make observations with different approaches in the examined fields. The hypothesis of the ongoing research is that camps can be investigated as a micro-environment for the Hungarian revival movement. Camps can be studied from touristic aspects, and the investigation may raise the question of dance transmission as well as the issue of the encounter with authenticity and traditional culture during a cult sacred time and space. The applied research methods are participant observations, semi-structural- and deep-interviews, questionnaires, thick descriptions, and video materials.
Folktales: An integral part of Hungarian culture
Music/FolkloreWe undertook the content analysis of Hungarian folktales compiled in a popular book by Illyés Gyula, titled "Hetvenhét Magyar Népmese" Móra Könyvkiadó, 2015 (1). The thematic analysis was guided by previous research on folktales seeking to identify patterns of altruism, qualities of character, themes of morality, and differing emphasis on male and female physical attractiveness. The purpose was to consider whether the themes of the folktales are relevant to today in helping children develop their moral compass and whether these themes may be viewed as important in today’s culture and merit retelling. The earlier study was inconclusive as we did not find the right codes to adequately capture the content of the collection. We recognized the unique qualities of these stories. Additionally, several sources define Hungarian folktales as belonging to a genre of tales that neither the narrator nor the listener considers the tale to be true. They are based on things that have never happened and are passed on by word of mouth, more like a poem, for amusement and pleasure. We describe several of the more elaborate characteristic openings and endings to illustrate this point. We reflect on the value of retelling folktales in deepening the connection in adult-child relationships.
(1) Papp KK, Walter KM. Content Analysis of Hungarian Folktales. Paper presented at AHEA Conference at Ryerson University, Toronto, ON. on 2017.05.29.
(1) Papp KK, Walter KM. Content Analysis of Hungarian Folktales. Paper presented at AHEA Conference at Ryerson University, Toronto, ON. on 2017.05.29.
Forced Assimilation and Language Shift Resistance through Education in Csángóland
Education/Social SciencesThe Csángó Hungarians of Moldova in Eastern Romania are among the most economically, politically, and linguistically marginalized communities in the country. The Csángós were and continue to be denied at every turn the right to educate their children in their native Hungarian, even to worship in their native tongue. The process of language loss and assimilation is hastened not only by various coercive measures taken by the state, the leadership of the regional Roman Catholic diocese, local teachers’ groups and so on, but also by a more subtle process by which the local Csángó Hungarian is losing prestige among the younger generation in many villages. Currently, the Csángó Hungarians have, for the most part, little influence on the political forces controlling their economic, political and cultural fate. The Csángós have appealed to the European community for help, but their success at marshalling EU support has been limited. November 2011 marked the tenth anniversary of the largely ignored Recommendation 1521 of the Council of Europe regarding Csángó minority culture in Romania. Grassroots efforts to educate Csángó children in Hungarian have begun to bear fruit. In response to the repeated refusal by officials to institute Hungarian language teaching in schools, the Association of Csángó Hungarians in Moldavia organized an expanding extracurricular Hungarian language education program for Csángó children. The program, operating for about a dozen years now, provides Hungarian instruction to more than 2000 Csángó children in 25 villages as well as the opportunity for high school students to attend Hungarian boarding schools in Székelyland, which increasingly serves as a springboard for pursuing higher education in Hungarian. The successful program is financially supported by donations as well as the Hungarian Ministry of Culture. In recent months, a dispute over funds between the Hungarian government and the Association of Csángó Hungarians in Moldavia has placed the future of the program and thus Hungarian instruction in Moldova in jeopardy.
Foreign But Not Alien: Life narratives of Anglophone international students in Hungary
Education/Social SciencesHungarian higher education has seen an upsurge in the number of international students it has served in recent years. According to Statista (2025), they numbered 37 500 in the 2023–24 academic year, a remarkable increase from only 14 300 in 2009–10. This amounts to a percentage growth of over 162 percent! This shift in our student population makes it incumbent upon university instructors, administrators and other staff to better understand the various needs, concerns, strengths and weaknesses of these newcomers. Proceeding from work by Bruner (1987) and Fougère (2008) on the construction of identity through self-narrative, the paper will present findings from a case study involving the life narratives of five Anglophone international students at the University of Szeged. Themes explored will include: sensemaking (the process of an ever changing understanding of an ever changing identity); a sense of belonging with a focus on insideness and outsideness, competence and role fulfillment, and center and periphery dynamics; questioning and learning about the self; and development and change, including heterotopias and the ‘third space’, and dwelling in-between. In exploring the life narratives of these particular participants, the paper may have a range of implications for universities and other institutions in Hungary (and elsewhere) toward more effective preparation for the ever growing influx of international students (and staff) from throughout the world.
Forty Years in the Wilderness: Teaching Hungarian in the UK and the US, 1972-2012
Education/Social SciencesThe paper draws on my experience of teaching Hungarian in universities in the Anglo-Saxon world, indicating some of the lessons of the past and offering some ideas for the future.
Four Hungarian Politicians in Michigan
History/Political ScienceMy hometown is Flint, Michigan. Having attended a Hungarian ethnic church in Flint, I was acquainted with a Michigan Hungarian politician who was a Flint City Commissioner. A second Hungarian politician was Elza Papp, who incidentally became the second woman to be elected a judge in the state of Michigan.
Stephen J. Roth of Flint was actually born in Hungary and was elected the Attorney General of Michigan in 1948. Later, President Kennedy appointed him a Federal Judge. Zoltan Ferency was born in the Delray Hungarian neighborhood of Detroit. He was Chairman of Michigan's Democratic Party and later became the Democratic nominee for governor of the state. In my paper, I will present additional biographical details about each of these Hungarian politicians.
Stephen J. Roth of Flint was actually born in Hungary and was elected the Attorney General of Michigan in 1948. Later, President Kennedy appointed him a Federal Judge. Zoltan Ferency was born in the Delray Hungarian neighborhood of Detroit. He was Chairman of Michigan's Democratic Party and later became the Democratic nominee for governor of the state. In my paper, I will present additional biographical details about each of these Hungarian politicians.
Fragments from the Archives: The Federation of Free Hungarian Jurists
History/Political ScienceAt the dawn of the Cold War, a group of exiled Hungarian jurists in the United States formed the Federation of Free Hungarian Jurists (of America) (FFHJ) to wield the rule of law against communist tyranny. Led by former Hungarian minister Vince Nagy, they rallied émigré lawyers, judges and professors to scrutinize communist regimes and expose their crimes. From New York, this ideologically driven legal cadre lobbied Washington and the United Nations with memoranda denouncing Soviet and Hungarian Communist authorities for their abuses. Relying on archival materials this paper represents a first-ever attempt at uncovering the details of the activities of the FFHJ. The paper goes beyond the publications of the FFHJ and looks at the political links that drove the formation of this informal organization. The identified archival sources reveal the circles in which the FFHJ jurists operated, from the Hungarian political exile, to the American authorities, and the network of like-minded organizations. These materials reveal some of the motivations driving the jurists that formed the FFHJ.
Francis Bowen, “War of Races in Hungary,” and a Lost Harvard Professorship
History/Political ScienceIn February 1851 the Board of Overseers of Harvard University voted against confirming Francis Bowen as McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History. Bowen, the editor of the prestigious literary journal North American Review, the year before had written and published two articles highly critical of Hungary’s revolution and war of independence of 1848-49, resulting in a war of words, attacks and counterattacks, that carried over onto the pages of a few Boston newspapers, the Christian Examiner, and even the New York Tribune. In his articles, Bowen ignored the reforms that took place beginning in March 1848 and considered the Hungarian declaration of independence the following year nothing more than an attempt of the nobility to continue its subjugation of the non-Hungarian population without Austrian interference. Bowen was accused not only of besmirching the motives of the Hungarian patriots, but also of shoddy scholarship and plagiarism. His main adversary was Mary Lowell Putnam, a polymath who was one of the few Americans at that time who knew Hungarian. Putnam was joined by Robert Carter, an editor and lifelong friend of Putnam’s brother, the poet James Russell Lowell. There were political implications here as well; Bowen was a conservative Whig at a time when the coalition of the Democratic and Free Soil parties was temporarily ascendant in Massachusetts politics. As it turned out, Bowen was not out of favor for long; in 1853 Harvard confirmed him as Alford professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity, a position he held for the next thirty-six years.
Frederic Balázs and Ernst von Dohnányi: From Budapest to the American Southwest
Music/FolkloreHungarian American musician Frederic Balázs (1920–2018) enjoyed early success, receiving the prestigious Reményi prize and becoming the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Budapest Symphony at age seventeen. He graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy with honors and later worked as a concert violinist, composer, conductor, and professor in the United States. Despite these achievements, however, Balázs’s life and work have yet to attract scholarly attention. This paper represents perhaps the first attempt to bring such attention by examining Balázs’s interactions with legendary Hungarian musician Ernst von Dohnányi (1877–1960). Their associations not only paint an introductory picture of Balázs but also provide insights into Dohnányi’s far-reaching influence and the emigration experiences of Hungarian musicians.
Balázs studied with Dohnányi in Budapest, observed his conducting of the Budapest Symphony, and felt that he possessed a spiritual kinship with Liszt. Dohnányi later helped Balazs emigrate to the United States at the advent of World War II. Once there, Balazs heard about Dohnányi’s courageous defense of Jewish musicians during the war and followed suit by collaborating with African American musicians during the Civil Rights Movement. Balázs also defended Dohnányi’s romantic compositional style. When Dohnányi left Europe at the war’s end, Balázs extended both empathy and a concert invitation to Texas, where they performed together. Despite the challenges of emigration, both musicians employed optimism and humor in their music and daily life.
Balázs studied with Dohnányi in Budapest, observed his conducting of the Budapest Symphony, and felt that he possessed a spiritual kinship with Liszt. Dohnányi later helped Balazs emigrate to the United States at the advent of World War II. Once there, Balazs heard about Dohnányi’s courageous defense of Jewish musicians during the war and followed suit by collaborating with African American musicians during the Civil Rights Movement. Balázs also defended Dohnányi’s romantic compositional style. When Dohnányi left Europe at the war’s end, Balázs extended both empathy and a concert invitation to Texas, where they performed together. Despite the challenges of emigration, both musicians employed optimism and humor in their music and daily life.
