The Reception and Reimagining of Katalin Karády in the Arts, 1980s to the Present (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
In this paper we examine how Hungarian performers of the present day reflect artistically on Katalin Karády. The film star’s unique contributions to music, fashion, and popular entertainment as well as
her rumored bisexuality rendered her unique in the country’s history of popular culture. As well, her legend was bolstered by her humanitarian activism, persecution by both the fascist and communist
authorities, and her emigration. Karády thus has meant many things to her public, past and present. This paper will contrast two recent interpretations. The 1986 album Nincs kegyelem (There is no mercy) by Juli Postássy, András Trunkos, and Ádám Dévényi, exemplifies a late socialist-era interest in making stylized re-embodiments of Karády as a singer. Artists contemplating Karády since 1990 have had the
advantage of knowing previously suppressed facts about the star’s life. Zsófia Bán’s monodrama entitled Karady politicizes her predicament focusing on issues like abuse and torture, lesbian relationship, emigration, and workmanlike acting. We argue that the singularity of the abject (Kristeva) as represented by Karády offers Hungarian artists the potential for a penetrating set of symbolic commentaries on contemporary society and contemporary personal experience.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Anna Szemere, Independent scholar, was formerly Research Fellow at the Institute of Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She holds the PhD from the University of California, San Diego. She is author, with András Rónai, of Bea Palya: I’ll Be Your Plaything (Bloomsbury, 2022) and Up from the Underground: The Culture of Rock Music in Postsocialist Hungary (Penn State, 2001). Her research
interests include popular music and youth culture and the politics of gender with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Email: anna.szemere@gmail.com.

Barbara Rose Lange is Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Houston,
Texas. She holds the PhD from the University of Washington. She is author of Local Fusions: Folk Music Experiments in Central Europe at the Millennium (Oxford, 2018) and Holy Brotherhood: Romani Music in a Hungarian Pentecostal Church (Oxford, 2003). Her research interests focus on Romani, Magyar, and Central European vernacular and popular song. Email: sor2355@gmail.com