Sándor Bródy's Lyon Lea: Crossing Social Boundaries and International Borders (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Considered 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.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Maya J. Lo Bello (PhD candidate) is an Assistant Professor at ELTE TÓK’s Department of Foreign Language and Literature, where she teaches English-language courses and literature. She is currently completing her PhD in Modern Hungarian Language and Literature at ELTE BTK; her research focuses on the role played by the impressionistic critic and editor, Miksa Fenyő, in both the modern literature movement of Nyugat [‘West’] and the industrialization of Hungary’s economy via his position at the Hungarian Industrialists’ Association, GyOSz. Her latest study, "Chasing Impressions: A Comparative Cultural Analysis of Impressionistic Criticism in Hungary", was published in 2019 by the University of Pennsylvania’s journal, Comparative Literature Studies. Maya Lo Bello translates extensively and is Technical Editor of the e-journal, Hungarian Cultural Studies.