Cultural Studies paper by Venkovits, Balázs
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.