Cultural Studies paper by Vöő, Gabriella
Characterologies in Interwar Hungary: from National to Transnational (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
By the 1930s, systematic descriptions of national character could claim a century-long tradition in Hungary since Jellemisme [Character Criteria] by Jáczint Rónay was published in 1847. World War I, the ensuing bourgeois revolution and communist coup, and the Trianon Peace Treaty prompted some prominent intellectuals to revisit the issue of national character. Their efforts yielded the claim that national tragedies and losses in national history derived from autochthonous, and not merely European, and even Asian, historical, and cultural factors. My presentation addresses this discourse by analyzing the heated debate in Hungary that followed the 1936 publication of A vándor és a bujdosó [The Wanderer and the Exile] by Lajos Prohászka. Drawing on the history of ideas, Prohaszka argued that the Hungarian national spirit inclines towards the “exile,” a tendency toward isolation and closure. The mirror image of this type is, according to Prohászka’s scheme, that of the metaphysical ”wanderer,” the German. The publication of this book provoked the resistance of prominent historians and philosophers of the time. The synthesis that Prohászka’s characterology proposes between traits of the “exile” and the ”wanderer,” like the arguments of those who contested it, represented an effort to come to terms with the breakup of the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire. However, while the debate raged about how to preserve Hungarian national identity, the majority of these intellectuals ignored or silently wished away the looming shadow of late 1930s National Socialism.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Gabriella Vöő (PhD) is an Associate Professor at the Department of English Literatures and Cultures, University of Pécs, Hungary. She specializes in nineteenth-and twentieth-century American literature and culture as well as the reception of British and American authors in Hungary. Her publications include essays on US antebellum fiction and poetry, gender in the context of nineteenth-century cultural politics, as well as the books