Past Abstracts
1,037 abstracts found
Rutgers and the President’s Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief
Science/EconomicsJames Niessen will talk about the digitization of Rutgers' Hungarian refugee relief papers on adding records from other repositories to the digital collection. The President's Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief oversaw the processing of 32,000 refugees from Hungary at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey in 1956-1957. Rutgers' collection of the papers of Tracy S. Voorhees contains a key portion of the records of the committee. We have digitized these records and made them freely accessible online. We also hope to add related records from other repositories to this virtual collection.
Samuel Brassai’s Linguistic Work
Language/LiteratureBrassai’s most permanent achievement falls in the field of linguistics, which is the area in which he received the most acknowledgement. Modern syntactic literature begins with Brassai’s idea of the central position of the verb. His main work on syntax, in which he gives his detailed views about his theory of the sentence is A magyar mondat (The Hungarian Sentence). He placed the Hungarian sentence at the centre of his investigation, which was something of a novelty at that time, when, in the context of historical comparison and description, the unit of linguistic studies was the word. Brassai was the first to describe the actual structure of the communicative sentence; the first who had the idea that a sentence can be broken into a topic and a comment. He created the first and up to now the only sentence model that was capable of generating and describing endless numbers of Hungarian sentences. Researching the universal features of the sentence he concludes that the Hungarian sentence is not based on the dualism of the subject-predicate.
Brassai made intense studies of the problems of sentence and word order, examined the principles of stress and accent and carefully safeguarded the purity and correctness of the Hungarian language with regard to translations.
Brassai made intense studies of the problems of sentence and word order, examined the principles of stress and accent and carefully safeguarded the purity and correctness of the Hungarian language with regard to translations.
Sándor Bródy’s <i>Lyon Lea</i>: Crossing Social Boundaries and International Borders
Language/LiteratureConsidered the first dramatic work to depict World War I on stage in Hungarian, Sándor Bródy’s play, Lyon Lea (1915), crossed both social boundaries and international borders. While theater audiences stormed its venue, Vígszínház [‘Comedy Theater’], for tickets, critics from the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish press were outraged by its frank display of physicality and supposed disregard for religious tenets. Critics from the secular press—including Zoltán Szász’s review in Nyugat [‘West’]—meanwhile raised the question of whether the play should be categorized as “Jewish literature” and what influence its display of “exotic” Jewish culture had on Budapest theatergoers. Once the world-known director, Sándor Korda (Alexander Korda), made Lyon Lea into a successful film in 1915, many critics were further outraged that Bródy’s work would be representing Hungarian culture within the international world of cinema. Although the original film no longer exists and only a handful of photographs published in the magazine, Színházi Élet [‘Theater Life’], reveal how the play/film was originally staged, this lecture will trace the effect Lyon Lea had on Budapest’s audience during the first years of World War I by examining its original text and critical reception.
Sándor Kányádi: The Champion of Szekler Survival
Language/LiteratureThis talk concentrates on one aspect of the celebrated poet’s oeuvre, his ongoing struggle for the right of minority cultures to assert themselves against oppressive national powers and now, increasingly, against the tidal waves of globalization.
After WW I the Hungarian community of Transylvania became isolated and subject to efforts to submerge it in the dominant nation state of Romania, especially under the Ceausescu regime. Its very survival became precarious when Hungarian schools and institutions of higher learning were closed; an ethnic group cannot maintain itself without its language. Hungarian poets and writers became beacons in the fight for the preservation of Hungarian identity. Among them perhaps Sándor Kányádi has been the most effective, not only because of his strong personal commitment to the cause, but also because he realized from the beginning that the key to Szekler survival lay in peaceful coexistence and finding a common ground with the dominant Romanian culture. He started his career by befriending and translating the contemporary Romanian poets, including the aging Arghezi, the founder of modern Romanian poetry. In addition, he waged his battles without using nationalistic slogans; he tied the Szekeler cause to the survival of all ethnic minorities all over the world, such as Indian tribes in North America or the indigenous peoples of South America. In effect he is a cosmopolitan nationalist. His campaign for his embattled community is amply illustrated with my new translations of his poems on the subject.
After WW I the Hungarian community of Transylvania became isolated and subject to efforts to submerge it in the dominant nation state of Romania, especially under the Ceausescu regime. Its very survival became precarious when Hungarian schools and institutions of higher learning were closed; an ethnic group cannot maintain itself without its language. Hungarian poets and writers became beacons in the fight for the preservation of Hungarian identity. Among them perhaps Sándor Kányádi has been the most effective, not only because of his strong personal commitment to the cause, but also because he realized from the beginning that the key to Szekler survival lay in peaceful coexistence and finding a common ground with the dominant Romanian culture. He started his career by befriending and translating the contemporary Romanian poets, including the aging Arghezi, the founder of modern Romanian poetry. In addition, he waged his battles without using nationalistic slogans; he tied the Szekeler cause to the survival of all ethnic minorities all over the world, such as Indian tribes in North America or the indigenous peoples of South America. In effect he is a cosmopolitan nationalist. His campaign for his embattled community is amply illustrated with my new translations of his poems on the subject.
Sándor Kányádi’s Romantic Renaissance: Beyond Shelley, Petőfi and Contemporary Populist Poetry
Language/LiteratureThe paper will explore in what sense Kányádi’s verse signals a revival of romanticism espoused by the romantic poets Percy Shelley, Sándor Petőfi, and contemporary populist poetry. While focusing on a comparative study of the subject matter, style, and craft of Kányádi’s “new” romanticism within the scope of the tradition, the study will demonstrate how the Hungarian poet’s pioneering voice may be regarded as a forerunner to contemporary American populist poetry. The proposed primary texts for the investigation include a new translation by Paul Sohar, In Contemporary Tense (Iniquity Press / Irodalmi Jelen, 2013), The Norton Anthology of Literature (W.W. Norton Vol. II, Fourth Edition, 1979), Petőfi Sándor’s Összes Költeményei (Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1960) and The Oxford Handbook of Modern and Contemporary American Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Sándor Márai and the Emigration in “Funeral Oration”
Language/LiteratureThere were various factors that led Sándor Márai (1900-1989) to his decision to leave his native land in 1948. Among these were the siege of Budapest, in which his apartment was also destroyed, and – primarily – the evolution of the Communist regime in Hungary. When he finally decided to emigrate, he moved first to Italy, and later settled in the United States. Nevertheless, he never quit writing, and what is more, he always kept doing so in Hungarian, even though he pledged not to publish any of his works in Hungary as long as the country was under foreign domination. This fact is already in itself a clear evidence of the deep allegiance Márai held toward his Hungarian (and bourgeois) consciousness, to his Hungarian identity, and to the Hungarian language, as much before as after his emigration. No wonder he found the preservation of these values as of great, even vital importance.
The present paper intends to analyze Sándor Márai’s "Halotti beszéd" (Funeral Oration, 1951) written when he had already left his homeland and was living in Naples, Italy, and to explore the thoughts and ideas the poem reveals concerning the emigrant’s existential situation and possible future. While doing so, it also aims to study the various, more or less hidden, cultural and literary references in Funeral Oration, as well as to offer an interpretation of their application in terms of the possibility, if any, to preserve one’s identity (Hungarian or otherwise) abroad in emigration.
The present paper intends to analyze Sándor Márai’s "Halotti beszéd" (Funeral Oration, 1951) written when he had already left his homeland and was living in Naples, Italy, and to explore the thoughts and ideas the poem reveals concerning the emigrant’s existential situation and possible future. While doing so, it also aims to study the various, more or less hidden, cultural and literary references in Funeral Oration, as well as to offer an interpretation of their application in terms of the possibility, if any, to preserve one’s identity (Hungarian or otherwise) abroad in emigration.
Sándor Márai: Looking Back from Cultural Crossroads
Cultural Studies/ArtsIn his prime in interwar Hungary, Sándor Márai became widely regarded as the chronicler of the dying European bourgeoisie, and in particular, its Hungarian subspecies. Most of his novels were set in Hungary, and any outward focus served to illuminate Hungarian cultural concerns. After his emigration in 1948, the settings of his novels ranged widely: Homeric Greece, postwar Naples, pre-Imperial Rome, Rome at the turn of the 16th to 17th centuries, biblical Israel – and, astonishingly, the semi-arid northeastern hinterland of 19th-century Brazil. Focusing on his Judgement in Canudos, we consider how Márai uses this cultural and geographical setting so alien to his own experience. Is it mere cultural appropriation, to use a currently trending term? Or is it something else? Márai uses the Brazilian War of Canudos – incidentally, also the setting of Mario Vargas Llosa’s The War of the End of the World, written a decade after Márai’s work – in fact to examine the surprising power of an irrational ideology over even the well-educated bourgeoisie. Its application to modern Hungarian history becomes clear. Márai uses an alien culture in order to illuminate his own homeland’s contemporary woes, and Europe’s. Similar concerns lie behind Peace in Ithaca: an exile’s fear of returning home; San Gennaro’s Blood: an exile’s guilt at not being able to save his homeland; Something Happened in Rome: how people position themselves in a sudden regime change; and The Enforcer: how personal resistance to a totalitarian ideology can take shape.
Satisfaction With Working from Home Under the Influence of COVID
Science/EconomicsIn our study, we present the effect of COVID on satisfaction with the form of working from home. Due to the pandemic, the cessation of attendance at work in many sectors, and its economic implications, the study of the home office as an atypical form of work is topical and particularly important. Our research question is whether there is a relationship between employee demographics and satisfaction with the home office. Based on the above, we hypothesize that there is a correlation between employee demographics (gender, age, education, place of residence, and the number of minor children under 12) and home office satisfaction. In the course of the research, we interviewed 600 Hungarian residents aged 18-64 with an online questionnaire who had ever worked at home for a total of at least three months in a home office. The research took place at the end of the 3rd wave of COVID, between May and June 2021. Examining the demographic variables, it can be concluded that women are more satisfied with the home office than men. However, for the other demographic indicators, we could not show a significant relationship.
Saying Goodbye – A Comparative Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Expatriation and Mourning
Cultural Studies/ArtsExpatriation can qualify as a social trauma. The expatriate is deprived of a familiar, secure environment in which to continue their life. The process of a kind of symbolic mourning for loss is a necessary step to connect with a continued existence abroad. But can the traditional understanding of mourning, which commonly refers to the expression of sorrow for someone’s death, be compared to the symbolic mourning that expatriates experience? This presentation will introduce and bring attention to some of the most important principles of psychoanalysis related to mourning and give a brief overview of the shared features of grief and expatriate loss. Taking into consideration the various stages of emotions which are experienced by expatriates and mourners, we shall see that in both cases a sense of continuity in daily life within a known environment is interrupted, resulting in the development of acute pain and encapsulated sadness that accompany loss. Distance magnifies the reality of absence, which is present in both expatriation and mourning. Both events shed light on significant changes in the individuals’ perception of themselves and of their environment brought about by the experience of loss. By exploring psychoanalytic approaches, this paper aims to offer a deeper understanding of the intricate ways the human mind works at times of crisis.
School and Scouts: Success in Ethnic Language Maintenance
Education/Social SciencesCleveland’s Hungarian School has provided weekly evening language instruction for children of Hungarian descent for over 50 years. Teaching is done by volunteer parents, and the curriculum ranges from kindergarten to high-school level. Many of the students are third-generation Hungarians, with relatively few immigrants and many with parents born and raised Hungarian in Cleveland. Entirely separate from the school is Cleveland’s Hungarian scouting movement, which holds weekly meetings and frequent outings and camps, as well as maintaining ethnic folk traditions for mostly the same group of children. Scouting activities are conducted entirely in Hungarian, and are an ideal opportunity for children of similar ethnic backgrounds to bond socially and to utilize the Hungarian language skills learned in the school. The two organizations thus complement each other’s work, leading to a strong, vibrant, youthful community of Hungarian speakers, even if of second or third generation immigration. Any average Monday or Friday evening, either in the school or at a scouting meeting, sees around a hundred children from the greater Cleveland area, learning and using the Hungarian language on a regular basis. The success of Cleveland’s Hungarian School and of the Hungarian scouting movement provides an example of ethnic language maintenance that meets the challenges of pluralism in the twenty-first century, for these children are both American and Hungarian; their identity and ethnic pride result from the work not only of their parents, but of dedicated volunteers at the school and in scouting.
Science Diplomacy and 250 Years of Hungarian Contributions to the United States of America
History/Political ScienceFocusing on science diplomacy and on 250 years of Hungarian contributions to the United States, this paper seeks to pinpoint some of the most important intersections between the two. Blending international relations and science policy, science diplomacy has emerged as a novel interest and strategic tool in international relations with great capacity to boost international cooperation. The essence of science diplomacy is to form knowledge-based partnerships and collaborate on solving problems that humans face collectively. There are different dimensions of science diplomacy, but its essential feature is that, despite living under varying social, political, and economic conditions, people who prioritize working toward improving the human condition and contributing to society, always find ways to do so. While this paper puts an emphasis on science diplomacy, it also recognizes that scientists and educators of various kinds, as well as artists, innovative entrepreneurs, and others with diverse backgrounds and expertise, have collectively added to the intellectual and cultural wealth, skills, and perspectives that they brought to the new world. In this spirit, it is important to recognize the remarkable achievements of many Hungarians who, for various reasons, crossed the Atlantic, settled in the United States, while also trying to maintain a strong cultural heritage and a resilient community.
Second Generation American Hungarian Soldiers in the US Army During World War II 1942-1945
History/Political ScienceThe analysis of the lecture based on a collection of letters, which were written by young second generation American Hungarians who were drafted into the Army of the United States of America during World War II. The soldiers were the sons of Hungarian immigrants of New Brunswick, NJ and the letters were sent to Andrew Kosa the minister of the Magyar Reformed Church in the city who also served as the president of the Hungarian Defense Council. Following WW II he donated the letters to the Special Collection and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries, New Brunswick, NJ. The letters give an insight of the world of the immigrant Hungarians in 1940s. It is a unique opportunity to find such a group of historical sources representing the same generation from the same period. The letters have their importance because of both their content and their language conserving and presenting the past for the next generations either for researchers or for the general public. In the collection there are 350 letters in English and 36 in Hungarian giving an idea of their language skill in both languages. The letters also give information about their Hungarian identity, their loyalty toward America, their value system. They show the cohesion of the Hungarian community and the process of their adjustment to American society and their assimilation. During the war they faced new perspectives which generated a new mobility that contributed later to the breaking up and change in the immigrant Hungarian community life.
The letters edited by Ilona Kovács were published by the Ethnographic Museum, Budapest in 2012.
The letters edited by Ilona Kovács were published by the Ethnographic Museum, Budapest in 2012.
Seeing, and not Seeing, Borders: Hungarian Identity in Dance
Music/FolkloreA principal strength of the Táncház movement, revival of Hungarian village dance and music going on for the past 45 years, is that the same dances are done in the same way throughout the world. Dancers from very different backgrounds in Japan, Canada, Hungary, and Romania can dance well together, even if they have just met.
Although dances move smoothly across borders, beneath the surface lie very different ideas about how Hungarian dance relates to identity. Differing paths to modernity of the wide range of places Hungarians live mean that in some areas, the dances as common village practice were lost sooner. Furthermore, Hungarians traveling far from ancestoral homes tended to establish themselves as Hungarians, less as regional descendents. For Hungarians in Hungary or the United States, a sense of Hungarianness may be more all-encompassing than for those living in villages in Transylvania practicing the dances that used to be done socially in their own backyards. A young man in Kalotaszentkirály, Romania, told me, “Why should I do the dances from Mezöszég, I know only 6-7 figures of Mezöszégi dances and I know 200 or 300 figures of Kalotaszeg.”
How do these different attitudes express themselves in dance learning, approach to dance, and improvisation? How do differing attitudes affect seeing the dances as ours and our view of continuity with the past? What are the implications of these attitudes in terms of a sense of self as Hungarian? Our conference location, in the heartland of Transylvanian dance, facilitates useful comparisons.
Although dances move smoothly across borders, beneath the surface lie very different ideas about how Hungarian dance relates to identity. Differing paths to modernity of the wide range of places Hungarians live mean that in some areas, the dances as common village practice were lost sooner. Furthermore, Hungarians traveling far from ancestoral homes tended to establish themselves as Hungarians, less as regional descendents. For Hungarians in Hungary or the United States, a sense of Hungarianness may be more all-encompassing than for those living in villages in Transylvania practicing the dances that used to be done socially in their own backyards. A young man in Kalotaszentkirály, Romania, told me, “Why should I do the dances from Mezöszég, I know only 6-7 figures of Mezöszégi dances and I know 200 or 300 figures of Kalotaszeg.”
How do these different attitudes express themselves in dance learning, approach to dance, and improvisation? How do differing attitudes affect seeing the dances as ours and our view of continuity with the past? What are the implications of these attitudes in terms of a sense of self as Hungarian? Our conference location, in the heartland of Transylvanian dance, facilitates useful comparisons.
Self-Identity and Community Through Social Media: The Digital Diasporas of Hungarians in the UK Withdrawn
Cultural Studies/ArtsThis paper discusses the digital communities of Hungarians in the UK: these communities (typically Facebook groups, blogs or other interactive websites) started to pop up on the internet in large numbers since the mid-2010s, when the intra-EU migration of Hungarians to the UK increased, and when the experience of migration – due to the ubiquity of the internet and that of digital technologies – has growingly become digitally mediated not only in Europe, but around the world (see e.g. Diminescu & Loveluck 2014, Georgiou 2013, Marino 2015). Although scholarly attention on Hungarian expat communities – and Hungarians living in “Western diasporas” in general – has been on the rise for a while, to this day not much has been said about the media-related aspects of this story, despite the fact that today much of the day-to-day public life of these communities occurs on the internet, in online spaces. The present paper focuses on these spaces and conceptualises them as “spaces of digital togetherness” (Marino 2015), i.e. where diasporic experiences and identities are constructed and negotiated on a daily basis, and which act as a kind of “social glue” that connects Hungarian expats / migrants with each other. The paper uses critical discourse analysis combined with digital ethnography in order to 1) identify what Hungarian expats/migrants do with media, what typical interactions they have in these online spaces; and 2) how they create, through the use of these spaces, a sense of cultural belonging, that is a specifically Hungarian digital (trans)cultural identity.
Sell Yourself at job interviews – understanding employer’s perspective
Education/Social SciencesThere is an ongoing, intense request from students to receive training about job interviews & exam situations. Unfortunately, most university curriculums are not containing such education. However, statistics show that a decision is made within the first 2-3 minutes in case of 80% of the interviews are longer than 30 minutes in general...
Hungary, especially Budapest became a multinational environment, providing plentiful opportunities for people abroad. However, foreigners don’t understand Hungarian culture in-depth and make terrible mistakes without even recognizing them. Just like Hungarians if they go abroad. We teach students how to act and react properly in such life-determining settings both if they stay as an alien or if they leave as a Hungarian.
University students expect seniors to be objective all the time with them. However, if there is a selection process, or when 6-700 students try to pass the same subject, it is not the case. Behavior, dress, cover letter, or just an email address can easily put them in the “no pile” based on unconscious bias.
On top of it, most of the applicants fail because they do not get the main point: almost every question is asking for something else than the question means grammatically.
We could create a clear format that helps to understand the real meaning.
Even though this course is proposed for medical school, we accept students from other faculties. The curriculum became so fortunate that we have success stories from medical doctors through graphic designers to soccer coaches.
Hungary, especially Budapest became a multinational environment, providing plentiful opportunities for people abroad. However, foreigners don’t understand Hungarian culture in-depth and make terrible mistakes without even recognizing them. Just like Hungarians if they go abroad. We teach students how to act and react properly in such life-determining settings both if they stay as an alien or if they leave as a Hungarian.
University students expect seniors to be objective all the time with them. However, if there is a selection process, or when 6-700 students try to pass the same subject, it is not the case. Behavior, dress, cover letter, or just an email address can easily put them in the “no pile” based on unconscious bias.
On top of it, most of the applicants fail because they do not get the main point: almost every question is asking for something else than the question means grammatically.
We could create a clear format that helps to understand the real meaning.
Even though this course is proposed for medical school, we accept students from other faculties. The curriculum became so fortunate that we have success stories from medical doctors through graphic designers to soccer coaches.
Sell Yourself at Job Interviews: understanding employer’s perspective
Education/Social SciencesThere is an ongoing, intense request from students to receive training about job interview situations. Unfortunately, most university curriculums are not containing such education.
However, statistics show that a decision is made within the first 2-3 minutes in case of 80% of the interviews are longer than 30 minutes in general...
On top of it, most of the applicants fail because they do not get the main point: almost every question is asking for something else than the question means grammatically.
We could create a clear format that is understandable for all students:
1. We discuss what does the actual question really mean? What the recruiter really wants to know?
2. Typical mistakes, what everyone should avoid both professionally and culturally
3. Tips for a well-structured, proper answer.
4. Concrete examples are the next, which reflect real-life situations.
5. What this situation teaches us? - what recruiter can learn from the answer?
Even though this course is proposed for medical school, we accept students from other faculties. The curriculum became so fortunate that we have success stories from medical doctors through graphic designers to soccer coaches.
Hungary, especially Budapest became a multinational environment, providing plentiful opportunities for people abroad. However, foreigners don’t understand Hungarian culture in-depth and make terrible mistakes without even recognizing them. Just like Hungarians if they go abroad. We teach students how to act and react properly in such life-determining situations both if they stay as an alien or if they leave as a Hungarian.
However, statistics show that a decision is made within the first 2-3 minutes in case of 80% of the interviews are longer than 30 minutes in general...
On top of it, most of the applicants fail because they do not get the main point: almost every question is asking for something else than the question means grammatically.
We could create a clear format that is understandable for all students:
1. We discuss what does the actual question really mean? What the recruiter really wants to know?
2. Typical mistakes, what everyone should avoid both professionally and culturally
3. Tips for a well-structured, proper answer.
4. Concrete examples are the next, which reflect real-life situations.
5. What this situation teaches us? - what recruiter can learn from the answer?
Even though this course is proposed for medical school, we accept students from other faculties. The curriculum became so fortunate that we have success stories from medical doctors through graphic designers to soccer coaches.
Hungary, especially Budapest became a multinational environment, providing plentiful opportunities for people abroad. However, foreigners don’t understand Hungarian culture in-depth and make terrible mistakes without even recognizing them. Just like Hungarians if they go abroad. We teach students how to act and react properly in such life-determining situations both if they stay as an alien or if they leave as a Hungarian.
Send us a Planeload! Catholic Organizations and the Resettlement of 56ers
History/Political ScienceThe recent focus of the author’s multi-year project on Hungarian refugees after the 1956 Revolution has been on religious identity and relief organizations. The refugees were diverse and included many without strong religious attachments. However, voluntary agencies (as they were then called) provided much-needed support during the emergency, especially for resettlement to the US. Catholics were the largest religious cohort among the refugees and provided the most generously funded and staffed agencies as well as most of the resettlement sponsorships required under American law. “Send us a Planeload!” was the title of a story in the Resettlement Newsletter of Catholic Relief Services. It captures the generous enthusiasm of American Catholics for the refugees, which was a blend of the era’s characteristic anti-Communism, identification with the travails of their church under Communist rule, and the dedicated service to refugees of people like Fabian Flynn, Eileen Egan, and James J. Norris. This talk will examine the activity of the Catholic agencies and their contribution to the resettlement process.
Service and Sacrifice: Hungarians from Cleveland in the U.S. Military 1951-2011
History/Political ScienceMany Hungarians fled a war-torn Hungary and arrived in Cleveland as Displaced Persons around 1951; many more refugees came after 1956, and still other Hungarians were born in Cleveland. The subjects of this study served their newfound or native country in the military, some for a few short years, others for more than twenty, and some still serve even today. Any community’s enemy is selfishness; Cleveland’s Hungarians, as it were, constitute a Hungarian village of sorts, and many of these villagers volunteered for service even if their duties became unpleasant. The author has collected over 230 names of those who served or are currently serving from the Cleveland area, and has conducted over 150 qualitative interviews. These short case studies of average citizens doing their duty offer examples of commitment and responsibility, values which are key to any village’s challenges. Many served during the Korean War, many went to Vietnam, including six killed in action, many spent time in Germany and in other stations overseas, and some fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some served only stateside, some were officers, many were drafted and many volunteered, but all are Hungarians who once lived or currently live in the Cleveland area. Their military histories and life stories shed light on Cold War events, and provide an example of service and sacrifice that rises to the challenges of pluralism in the 21st century.
Setting the Rules for “Business as Usual”: Establishing Bilateral US-Hungarian Relations, 1919–1925
History/Political ScienceBetween December 1919, when Ulysses Grant-Smith assumed ad interim consular duties in Budapest, and June 1925, when the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights was signed, the US and Hungary went from technically being at war to setting up functioning bilateral relations for the first time ever in the history of the two countries. This five and a half-year period was a time of transition, with three US presidents and four Hungarian prime ministers serving in office, while the US mission in Budapest was headed by three different people. In this paper I explain and evaluate the various key issues that had to be resolved on the highest level, ranging from terminating hostilities, making peace, handling the legacy of the Austro-Hungarian empire, setting up economic and cultural ties, and managing transatlantic migration. While the period between 1919 and 1921 has been addressed by historians Tibor Frank and Peter Pastor (as well as the present author), the developments in bilateral relations between August 1921 and June 1925 (the signing of the two treaties between the US and Hungary) have received only tangential attention (John Swanson, Peter Buckingham, Frank Costigliola).
Shortage as Experience in the 1940s and 1950s in Hungary and Transylvania
Cultural Studies/ArtsThe paper argues that shortage of food and energy as an experience concerned a whole generation during the 1940s and 1950s across the region and that it triggered emotional responses and routines. The paper starts with a close reading of the recently published receipt-book prepared by women in forced labour camp in 1944 (Czingel 2014) and of diaries written in 1944-45 that contain references to shortage. Through these texts I show types of moral economy functioning in the time of crises of those years.
Second, I analyze the discourse of shortage in letters exchanged among professional foresters working in Northern-Transylvania and Hungary between 1939 and 1944.
In the third section I juxtapose these with moral economy of cookbooks published in Hungary and in Transylvania during the war years and in the 1950s, narratives published in specialist periodicals as well as with reports related to food supply prepared by UNRRA and FAO administration between 1946 and 1960 about Hungary and Romania.
As an outcome we will see common and specific elements of the moral and emotional economy of shortage across time and space.
Second, I analyze the discourse of shortage in letters exchanged among professional foresters working in Northern-Transylvania and Hungary between 1939 and 1944.
In the third section I juxtapose these with moral economy of cookbooks published in Hungary and in Transylvania during the war years and in the 1950s, narratives published in specialist periodicals as well as with reports related to food supply prepared by UNRRA and FAO administration between 1946 and 1960 about Hungary and Romania.
As an outcome we will see common and specific elements of the moral and emotional economy of shortage across time and space.
