Accepted Abstracts -- 2022

Playing on the Beat: Hungarian Conductors Making American Sound (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
My proposed paper focuses on two outstanding orchestra conductors of Hungarian origin, Fritz Reiner (1888-1963) and George Szell (1897-1970), and will discuss their association with what has come to be called “the American sound” in the symphonic jargon. A popular way of defining this particular type of sound by orchestra conductors and musicians has been to say that American orchestras tend to play “on the beat” as opposed to the European practice of playing “after the beat” – the former resulting in a bright, crisp, and energetic sound, while the latter producing more mellow, rounded, and darker timbres, such as those of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. For most part of the twentieth century, the American sound was most emblematically associated with the Chicago Symphony and Cleveland Symphony Orchestras, which evolved into world-class ensembles under the direction of Reiner and Szell respectively. Their association with the American sound is all the more intriguing in light of the fact that the musical education of both Reiner and Szell were deeply rooted in the Central European tradition. In my presentation, I propose to discuss this topic in the context of cultural history in general and performance history in particular, rather than in that of musicology proper. Examining specific interpretations by Reiner and Szell of the music of L. v. Beethoven, Richard Strauss, and Béla Bartók, I wish to argue that their performative practice owes as much to the cultural milieu of their chosen country as to the musical heritage acquired in their native Europe.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Péter Csató is assistant professor and current chair of the North American Studies Department at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. He acquired his PhD degree in 2009 with his dissertation on the metaphoric of conversation in the work of American philosopher Richard Rorty. His academic interests include contemporary American fiction, literary and cultural theory, American and European philosophy, film studies, music history and musicology. Dr. Csató was a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at Cornell University in 2001-2002, as well as Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2015. He has also taught at the University of Bristol, and St. Mary’s University London.

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Bibliotherapy in Hungary amid Covid-19 (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper sets out to explore the importance of bibliotherapy in Hungary amid Covid-19. The
art of using books for therapeutic purposes precedes the pandemic, but it finds particular
application now when individuals need increasingly more support for emotional distress caused
by loss and mistrust. Social capital has declined in Hungary in recent years due to the almost
permanent state of emergency. The coronavirus has dramatically changed the way in which
people live: working and studying from home became a new norm. This shift raises important
questions about the impact of the disease on social connections. Without physical interaction,
trust is gradually lost and division is reinforced. Through the long months of the pandemic, the
hope of overcoming fear and regaining trust, meeting with loved ones, as well as travelling
freely again was a guiding light for many. Although people were confined to their homes, many
of them made epic voyages to desired places and people with the aid of an old friend, a book.
Recent research conducted in Hungary shows that the number of books published and sold in
2020 was at a record high. Reading has a positive impact on human wellbeing. Bibliotherapy,
which harnesses the meditative power of books, can teach helpful coping skills and provide
therapeutic strategies in difficult or unknown situations such as the pandemic, leading to the
creation of a healthier, high trust environment for everyone. Rebuilding social bonds, perhaps
with the help of bibliotherapy, is vital to recover from the Covid-19 crisis.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Teodóra Dömötör received her Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Surrey, UK. She currently works as an Assistant Professor at Karoli Gaspar University in Budapest, Hungary. Her primary research goals are directed towards the study of twentieth-century transnational American literature with a strong emphasis on the narrative representation of national and gender identity, immigration, and trauma. She is committed to interdisciplinary research: psychoanalysis, gender studies, and social history form the basis of her arguments. Her articles, chapters, and book reviews have appeared (or are forthcoming) in American and European publications.

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Hungarian Plays into American Films (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
It is generally known that Hollywood in the interwar years boasted a large Hungarian colony, with émigrés working in all capacities, but they were especially prominent as playwrights and screenwriters. Some of the most popular movies were based on Hungarian plays. For various reasons the contributions of Hungarians has been downplayed. Ernst Lubitsch's writing collaborator Samson Raphaelson dismissed the plays, saying he did not even read them. Billy Wilder, first a screenwriter then a director in his own right, repeated the maxim that Hungarian plays have no third act. In this presentation I will examine three important films and how and why they were changed from stage to screen. Aladár László's A becsületes megtaláló was realized as Trouble in Paradise, Miklós László's Illatszertár became The Shop Around the Corner, and László Bús-Fekete's Születésnap was the basis for Heaven Can Wait, all directed by the legendary Ernst Lubitsch. To my knowledge, this is the first time that such a comparison of the Hungarian plays with their American film versions has been attempted.






Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Steven Kovács is a filmmaker and professor emeritus of film at San Francisco State University. Author of a book on French Surrealist film and dozens of articles on film, art, and politics, he is a producer and director of feature films and documentaries, including ’68, ANGEL BLUE, THE LADY IN RED, and Academy Award Nominated documentary ARTHUR AND LILLIE.

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Three Sociolinguistic Methods of Testing Language Attitudes towards Hungarian Dialects (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper discusses three different ways of investigating language attitudes towards Hungarian dialects to illustrate what a sociolinguist can do during a pandemic. The first study presents Hungarian villagers’ attitudes by analyzing the enormous archive of the ‘New General Atlas of Hungarian’ project (2007-2012). Data from 197 interviews are built in a corpus and were used to test hypotheses such as: The speakers have negative experiences due to their dialect speech. Nonetheless, they are not ashamed of it. Those who are aware of their dialect background are more tolerant of other regions’ characteristics than those speakers who consider themselves as users of the standard. A second possibility for replacing fieldwork during a lockdown is collecting data online. This study investigates dialect features and the attitudes towards them in social media. Hundreds of random data warn of the presence of prejudice and prescriptive viewpoint that still characterizes mother tongue education in Hungary. The third study used an online survey that was designed for Hungarian voice actors with the cooperation of their labor union to explore their language attitudes. 69 responses were received, which allowed insight into the process of dubbing and reveal some factors that sometimes lead to a lower quality of Hungarian sound track. All three studies were conducted by the presenter, and they were supported by the Bolyai János Research Grant of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and by the ÚNKP-21-5 National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Andrea Parapatics is a sociolinguist who is an associate professor at the University of Pannonia in Veszprém, Hungary. Her main research areas are language attitudes towards regional dialects and teaching methodology. She has published a monograph, two exercise books, a slang dictionary, and numerous articles. She is a founding editor of the journal Anyanyelv-pedagógia. In the frame of the Bolyai János Research Grant, she is currently working on the analysis of the sociolinguistic interviews of the ‘New General Atlas of Hungarian’, a former project of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and ELTE.

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Current Tendencies in Married Name Choice in Hungary (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper presents the results of a study about current tendencies in married name choice in Hungary, exploring the practice of what married names are chosen and the motivating factors of the expression of identity that underlie it. Married names, have an important function in representing self-identity, whether traditional or compromise names are chosen by the members of the couple, and also if they decide to keep their birth names. This is also shown by the results of a questionnaire survey conducted in 2017. All the 70 participants had university degrees and lived in Budapest or in other large cities of Hungary. Sampling can by no means be taken to be representative but recurring response motifs draw an unambiguous picture of the motivations of the main trends of name choice, with components acting against one another with respect to the individual name types. These frequency components, as processed by content analysis, can be arranged along a scale from the intention to express togetherness, motivating the married name forms taken to be traditional, to the insistence on unique self-expression of the individual, with less typical name forms positioned in between. The background of the motifs of responses is very complex, multidimensional, and involves family traditions, social expectations, job market possibilities and psycho-sociological patterns of naming fashions, too.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Annamária Ulla Szabó T., linguist, assistant professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She gained her diplomas at the Eötvös Loránd University on French and Hungarian Language and Literature (2008) and Hungarian as a Foreign Language (2009). She earned her PhD in 2013 in Hungarian Linguistics. Her research area is sociolinguistics, bilingualism, socio-onomastics: the interaction of language, culture and identity; family-internal socialization of bilingual speakers; multilingual names and identity; motivations of married name choice in Hungary. Her methodological studies have their focus on the concentrated competence development of listening comprehension skills and cultural mediation in Hungarian as a foreign language.

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The Impact of the Pandemic Crisis on Women's Value Judgements: A Study of Hungarian Women With Close Ties to Church Congregations (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The present study is part of a larger research on the impact of the pandemic crisis caused by Covid-19 on women's value judgements. During the second wave, i.e. the first quarter of 2021, the question arose as to how the members of women's associations, closely linked to church congregations, responded to the pandemic crisis that placed an increased burden on them, whether they were able to adapt to the new situation in a short time, so that they could meet their basic need for faith and communication, support and care for each other, used as a coping and defence mechanism. A total of 70 Transylvanian (Romanian-Hungarian) and American-Hungarian women participated in the questionnaire survey, supplemented by in-depth interviews. The study also aims to explore the extent to which the members of women's associations have been affected by the pandemic crisis, whether their attitudes towards each other, their approach to everyday life and their faith have changed, and last but not least, what differences there might be between the attitudes of Hungarian women in Transylvania and in the US.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Teacher, journalist, editor and presenter of public and religious television programs. During my theological master's studies, I made programs and conducted research on the religious and cultural life of the Hungarians of the scatter and the diaspora. I was the organizer and editor, as well as the moderator of the online professional forum (https://rt.ubbcluj.ro/karantortenetek/) talked about pandemic strategies.
I am a member of the cross-border professional project "Helping Ethical Opinion Formation", which makes the literature available through translations and publications. As part of my current doctoral studies, I explore the effects of digital theology, the moral and moral connections between social identity, social media, and society, as a result of the advancement of digital technology, by mapping the contemporary English-language literature.

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The Impact of the Csokonai Kör and the Dugonics Társaság on Debrecen's and Szeged's Urban Images in the Light of the US Associational Culture in the 19th Century (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This presentation focuses on Debrecen's and Szeged's social life via the work of local literary associations. Moreover, it investigates their identity-forming role and their influence upon the urban identity and image of the cities respectively. The literary associations, the Csokonai Kör [Csokonai Circle] in Debrecen and the Dugonics Társaság [Dugonics Association] in Szeged played a crucial role in the formative period of urbanization in the 19th Century. The emergence and formation of local associations presuppose a conscious need for the citizens to express their freedom and self-identification within the society. They fostered the modern image of these cities in the Hungarian countryside. Local associations provided public spaces where people could meet, identify, and freely discuss common social problems; and, through that discussion, influence political action. These associations cultivated good relations and horizontal ties with other Hungarian literary societies and followed the latest news worldwide through their correspondences. The other aim of my paper is to scrutinize the 19th Century US associational culture and its impact on the urban identity and community formation from a transnational historical point of view. The local voluntary associations provided a "second home" for migrants, contributing to the local elite formation and strengthening its members' solidarity. My presentation aims to give an asymmetrical comparison of the 19th Century Hungarian and American Associational cultures and look for possible relations.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Lívia Szélpál is a senior lecturer at the Institute of English Studies, University of Pécs (PTE), where she teaches American History, Literature, and Culture. She completed her MA in American Studies (2004) and History (2005) at the University of Szeged (SZTE) and earned a Ph.D. in Comparative History at the Central European University in 2013. E-mail: szelpal.livia@pte.hu

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Struggling Modernities and Visions of Capitalism in the Összehasonlító Irodalomtörténelmi Lapok (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The invention of international fairs in the 19th century revolutionized both nationalism and modern thinking on global relationships since they showcased, reinforced, vindicated, but also contested and negotiated national, imperial, and global identities. From the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace to the 1900 Paris Exposition, the international fairs / expositions universelles were landmarks of histoire croisée of nationalism, global thinking, and capitalism. Even though they seem to be showcasing industrial progress, they also created a completely new frame for the self-fashioning, vindication, and negotiation of national arts and literatures, interpreted in a global setting and in capitalist terms. My paper will focus on the reception of the first international literary congress in the Összehasonlító Irodalomtörténelmi Lapok (later Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum). The capitalist overtones of the congress, organized at the Paris international exposition in 1878, were passionately contested by Hugo von Meltzl and the first international journal of comparative literary studies for offering a non-aesthetic vision of world literature.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Associate Professor (dr. habil.) in Hungarian and Comparative Literature (Babes-Bolyai University, Dept. of Hungarian Literary Studies). Currently finishing a book on the history of the first international journal of comparative literary studies.

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Problems of Masculinities in Contemporary Hungarian Romantic Comedies (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper, based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis (using data-driven methods and textual examination) will discuss changing trends in post-2000 Hungarian romantic comedies, with a particular focus on two topics: the ambivalent portrayal of masculinity, and how and to what extent the stories are embedded in the local socio-cultural milieu. Scholarly discussions of contemporary Hungarian romantic film comedies usually highlight two distinct features. On the one hand, these films target male (and not female) audiences (which is the global trend), and on the other, the milieu they depict is the upper-middle-class, cosmopolitan world of the entertainment / creative industries. While the first claim highlights the difference in local characteristics from the global trends, the second emphasizes the lack of local specificities. The paper assumes that while the male protagonists of the Hungarian romantic comedies of the 2000s were characterized by a duality of hegemonic masculinity and uncertainty, the heroes of the films of the 2010s are inherently more ambivalent figures, whose character development and self-seeking journey is more hesitant. The analysis will examine what factors might be responsible for these changes in the representation of masculinity in Hungarian romantic comedies, and how these romcoms (and their evolution) can be related to the local social and cultural climate.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Balázs Varga is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at ELTE, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. He writes and lectures on modern and contemporary Hungarian cinema, contemporary European cinema, production studies, popular cinemas and documentaries. He is a founding editor of Metropolis, a scholarly journal on film theory and history based in Budapest. His recent book in Hungarian Filmrendszerváltások. A magyar játékfilm intézményeinek átalakulása 1990–2010 [Film regime changes. Transformations in Hungarian Film Industry 1990–2010] was published by L’Harmattan, Budapest in 2016. His current project focuses on popular Hungarian and East European screen cultures during and after socialism.

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Reconstructing a Transatlantic Business Venture: Pataky Aladár’s Manuscript from 1927 (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper presents a previously unknown manuscript, a handwritten, personal account detailing a journey to the United States and Canada in 1927 with the primary purpose of selling Hungarian wine as part of a more extensive international venture. The presentation introduces the research that lead to the identification of the writer of the manuscript (written on sheets of paper from a Canadian hotel) and reconstructs the background of a fascinating business project, along with the story of the author positioning the text not only as a unique example to be studied with the tools of microhistory but also placing it in the broader, transatlantic historical and political environment of the time.
The text (along with the broader context of the business project and its roots in Hungary) is also studied and presented as a travel account that provides insights into Hungarian perceptions of North America in the 1920s, the images of Canada and the United States, while also telling just as much about the writer and his home country.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Balázs Venkovits (Ph.D., Dr. habil.) is Assistant Professor in American Studies, Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen. His broader academic interests include migration studies, travel writing studies, nineteenth-century Hungarian travel accounts on Mexico, the United States, and Canada, Hungarian immigration to Canada, and US-Hungarian relations. He teaches courses on American civilization, history, travel writing, and translation. His Hungarian monograph on the perception of Mexico and the United States in Hungarian travel writing was published in 2018, he is currently working on his book on Hungarian emigration to Canada in the inter-war period.

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