Showing papers in "Hungarian Cultural Studies in 2014"
TL;DR: Vasvari and Salzani as discussed by the authors present a bibliography for Hungarian studies as Comparative Central European Studies (CLCWeb), which straddles 2012-2013, covering the period since the publication in Fall of 2012 of last year's bibliography in this journal.
Abstract: As the above title indicates, this bibliography straddles 2012-2013, covering the period since the publication in Fall of 2012 of last year’s bibliography in this journal. Each yearly bibliography is supplemented by earlier items that were only retrieved recently. Although this bibliography can only concentrate on English-language items, occasional items of particular interest in other languages are included. For a more extensive bibliography of Hungarian Studies from about 2000 to 2010, for which the AHEA yearly bibliographies are an update, see Louise O. Vasvari, Steven Totosy de Zepetnek, and Carlo Salzani. “Bibliography for Work in Hungarian Studies as Comparative Central European Studies.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (Library) (2011): http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweblibrary/hungarianstudiesbibliography.
5 citations
TL;DR: The basic principles of Hungarian music-pedagogical methods, developed by Zoltan Kodaly and his disciples and thus known as the Kodaly method, are systematic instruction in sight-singing using "movable-do" solfege and rhythmic syllables, with the ideal of developing music literacy in all children through high-quality music, mainly classical and folk repertoire for choirs as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Music is one of the fields in which Hungary has distinguished itself around the world, and music education is an arena in which Hungarian methods have had a profound impact. The basic principles of Hungarian music-pedagogical methods, developed by Zoltan Kodaly (1882–1967) and his disciples and thus known as the Kodaly method, are systematic instruction in sight-singing using “movable-do” solfege and rhythmic syllables, with the ideal of developing music literacy in all children through high-quality music, mainly classical and folk repertoire for choirs. Another type of well-known Hungarian music, so-called “Gypsy music,” is specifically denied legitimacy both in Kodaly’s writings and those of some of his students, for two reasons: much of it is primarily instrumental instead of vocal, and it is considered “bad.” Yet Romani (Gypsy) musicians from Hungary have also become famous internationally, some from quite a young age. The Rajko Ensemble, established in 1952 as the Gypsy Orchestra of the Young Communists’ League, brought Hungarian and Hungarian-Gypsy music to over a hundred countries over the years. Interviews with Rajko members, some conducted by the author and some previously published, reveal those musicians struggling to claim the legitimacy not only of their music but of their music pedagogy, implicitly comparing the Rajko method to the Kodaly method. After a brief discussion of the Kodaly method and its history, this essay gives some examples of how that method has dealt with talented Romani youth in Hungary; compares the Kodaly method to methods of teaching instrumental music in Roma communities and in the Rajko Ensemble; and considers how American ideals of multicultural education challenge some of Kodaly’s tenets.
3 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the translatability of surnames in Hungarian has been studied, from the problems of translating the immediate predecessors of surname to the questions of translating surnames today.
Abstract: In our paper we focus on the translating practice and translatability of surnames used in Hungarian, from the problems of translating the immediate predecessors of surnames to the questions of translating surnames today. Our main interest is in how multilingualism, language contact situations, language prestige considerations, customs, fashion and other potential factors affect the use of these names in different languages, and the translatability in a wider sense in the actual practice in Hungary and other countries. We shall look at name translation practice in medieval documents, the relevant questions of spontaneous and conscious surname changes, the changes of Hungarian surnames used outside of Hungary, and finally the questions of translating surnames occurring in fiction.
2 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the possible sources of information for soon-to-become transatlantic migrants from Europe in general, and from Hungary in particular, and analyzes the various types of "booster literature" along with the people who had an interest in its publication, and offers a case study of handbooks and guidebooks written specifically for Hungarian emigrants to America during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Abstract: The process of migration includes the movement between relatively distant geographical locations as well as often facing considerable cultural differences between the sending and receiving countries. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century, millions of emigrants from East Central Europe and Southern Europe sought their personal dreams in America, but had painfully little information at their disposal about the country, and were consequently in for a considerable “culture shock.” This paper examines the possible sources of information for soon-to-become transatlantic migrants from Europe in general, and from Hungary in particular. It analyzes the various types of “booster literature,” along with the people who had an interest in its publication, and offers a case study of handbooks and guidebooks written specifically for Hungarian emigrants to America during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
2 citations
TL;DR: The most important aspect of Vambery's theory about Hungarian origins is the thesis that Hungarian ethnogenesis took place beginning with late Roman times or even earlier in the Carpathian Basin this paper.
Abstract: In the English-speaking world Armin Vambery is known as a traveler in Central Asia and a student of Turkic cultures and languages. In his native Hungary he is also known for his disagreement with linguists who believed that Hungarian belonged to the Ugric branch of the Finno-Ugric languages—a part of the Uralic linguistic family. Rather than accepting this theory, Vambery contended that Hungarian was largely a Turkic language that belonged more to the Altaic family. Few people know that Vambery also expressed strong opinions about the genesis of the Hungarian nation. The most important aspect of Vambery’s theory about Hungarian origins is the thesis that Hungarian ethnogenesis took place—beginning with late Roman times or even earlier—in the Carpathian Basin. A corollary of this proposition is that the nomadic tribes that conquered the Carpathian Basin at the end of the ninth century were Turkic peoples who were few in numbers and were assimilated by the region’s autochthonous—and by then Hungarian-speaking—population. This paper outlines Vambery’s arguments and describes to what extent research on this subject in the century since Vambery’s death has confirmed or contradicted his unconventional ideas.
2 citations
1 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the portrayal of gender in the work of Swiss-Hungarian writer Agota Kristof through a framework of materialist feminism, masculinity studies and narratology.
Abstract: This paper investigates the portrayal of gender in the work of Swiss-Hungarian writer Agota Kristof. Texts from her oeuvre that belong to different literary genres and creative periods are analyzed through a framework of materialist feminism, masculinity studies and narratology. Based on an analysis of the incidence of the female voice, two aesthetic strategies can be observed: on the one hand, Kristof’s early texts show a certain interest in women’s subjectivity, on the other, her later writings foreground male characters and their perspective. Overall, women are portrayed as homebound wives and mothers and men are dominant as narrators, writers and protagonists. While this seems to reflect the patriarchal dichotomy, other elements undermine this reading: male characters are weak and marginal, and in a few significant texts, women’s life in the family is represented as a prison from which they wish to escape. In these texts, the female character’s voice reveals the internal conflict between her aspirations and the pressures to conform to prescribed roles, which, in some instances, leads to subversion in the form of violence against her husband. Thus, though on the surface Kristof’s work seems to reinforce or merely reflect patriarchy, the deeper layers of meaning bring into succeeding focus a fundamental interrogation of gender roles.
1 citations
TL;DR: Horvath as mentioned in this paper discusses her ten-year teaching experience as a teacher of Hungarian literature to Hungarian language learners within the Hungarian Studies Program, a one-year off-site university program offered to international students, accredited by the University of Pecs, and hosted by the Balassi Institute, Budapest.
Abstract: Although there are many Hungarian Studies scholars teaching literature to Hungarian language learners around the world, there are practically no resources available about what is happening in these classes, and what linguistic, literary and cultural challenges they pose for students and teachers. In her study, Gyorgyi Horvath discusses her ten-year teaching experience as a teacher of Hungarian literature to Hungarian language learners within the Hungarian Studies Program, a one-year off-site university program offered to international students, accredited by the University of Pecs, and hosted by the Balassi Institute, Budapest. She discusses the institutional and program framework she worked in, gives a detailed account of the linguistic, literary and especially the cultural competencies that were in play in these courses, and also formulates some general methodological insights about teaching Hungarian literature to language learners. Horvath concludes that teaching literature cross-culturally widens the cultural horizons of students as well as of their teachers, offering them a space for increased cultural awareness and self-reflection.
1 citations
TL;DR: The authors presented a translation of a contemporary Welsh play by Sera Moore Williams, Crash (2004), into Hungarian, where the intermediary role played by English raises ethical concerns from a postcolonial perspective, while in a pragmatic sense it is almost a necessity to rely on it when communicating Welsh-language cultural production to the broader international public.
Abstract: This article offers a predominantly contextual introduction to my translation of a contemporary Welsh play by Sera Moore Williams, Crash (2004), into Hungarian. Williams' three-person drama for young people was written originally in the author's native language, Welsh, and translated into English by the playwright herself. In my translation process of the play from English to Hungarian the intermediary role played by English raises ethical concerns from a postcolonial perspective, while in a pragmatic sense it is almost a necessity to rely on it when communicating Welsh-language cultural production to the broader international public, including to other minor languages. The article will place the drama in its generic context, introducing the play as a Theater in Education piece, as Williams' work has been inspirational in the development of tantermi szinhaz [classroom theater] in Hungary since the early 2000s. As a specific case study within the case study, the additional discussion of the translation of Williams' polysemic title will provide an insight into the role such a significant paratext plays in uprooting a dramatic text from one culture to another.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present information based on the experiences of American student teachers spending three weeks teaching English and American Culture in Szent Istvan's Practice School, making presentations to local clubs, churches, libraries, and traveling throughout Hungary.
Abstract: In exploring the best practices for preparing new teachers to meet the challenges of the changing demographics present in contemporary classrooms, cross-cultural internship experiences emerge as an important component to teacher training curriculums. The authors present information based on the experiences of American student teachers spending three weeks teaching English and American Culture in Szent Istvan’s Practice School, making presentations to local clubs, churches, libraries, and traveling throughout Hungary. This exchange program presented a great opportunity for the authors to conduct a study related to exploring the impact of the student teaching abroad experience in their teaching dispositions as well as in developing an understanding of working within a culturally and linguistically diverse environment.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the origin and circumstances of New Zealand's Hungarian community, why they thought to develop a Hungarian language course, and how the course relates to the interests of Hungarian students.
Abstract: The authors, a historian and a language-learning expert, recently devised an introduction to Hungarian history, language and culture for students in Wellington, New Zealand. We describe the origin and circumstances of New Zealand’s Hungarian community, why we thought to develop a Hungarian language course, and how the course relates to the interests of New Zealand students. After explaining our approach to historical and linguistic components of the course, we consider the future of Hungarian studies in New Zealand.
TL;DR: This article analyzed the complex relation between autobiography and fiction in the work of the Hungarian psychiatrist, writer and music critic Geza Csath (the pen name of Jozsef Brenner [1887-1919]), in particular his 1912-1913 diary, usually called the morfinista naplo [diary of a morphine addict], by comparing its Polish and French translations as a means of highlighting alternative interpretations of the diary itself.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the complex relation between autobiography and fiction in the work of the Hungarian psychiatrist, writer and music critic Geza Csath (the pen name of Jozsef Brenner [1887–1919]), in particular his 1912–1913 diary, usually called the morfinista naplo [diary of a morphine addict], by comparing its Polish and French translations as a means of highlighting alternative interpretations of the diary itself. Because the choices that were made when translating such fragmented texts already imply more or less developed interpretations of them, variations between them can be examined side by side in order to reveal sometimes widely diverging understandings of the diaries’ meaning, purpose and general structure. The decision-making that led to the translators’ choices is not only examined here case by case, but also in the context of an assumed overarching reading of these diaries, accounting for a sense of consistency in their differentiation patterns. Scrutinizing these choices allows for the discussion of relevant internal contradictions within the text itself, which in turn accounts for its richness and poetic value; they invite us to immerse ourselves into a world of tangled streams of thoughts where life and work crisscross, into a narrative that is neither a proper diary nor a novel. Beyond attempting to assess the degrees of validity of the given translations, this paper focuses mainly on showcasing them as alternative yet equally relevant interpretative stepping stones into Csath’s monstrously complex and tormented literary world.
TL;DR: The authors explored six Hungarian films that deal with history through multiple perspectives to dramatize the dynamic between historical events and human responses to them, and found that these films reference history, or efface it, as a way of problematizing the relationship between human behavior and history.
Abstract: Hungarian films produced after the year 2000 build on the historical reality of the fall of communism and anticipate, or come to terms with, entry into the European Union. This article will explore six films that deal with history through multiple perspectives to dramatize the dynamic between historical events and human responses to them. These films reference history, or efface it, as a way of problematizing the relationship between human behavior and history. Colossal Sensation [ Vilagszam – Dodo es Naftalin] (2005 ) and Children of Glory [ Szabadsag, szerelem ] (2006), for example, examine Hungarians’ moments of defiance during the 1956 uprising but shape historical events to fit human constructs. Contemporary history provides satire of rising capitalism in The District! [ Nyocker! ] (2005) whose plot weaves historical figures into a modern rendition of Romeo and Juliette. Miracle in Krakow [ Csoda Krakkoban ] (2004) also presents a book as its central metaphor, and, like The District!, the book allows some of history’s uglier moments to be erased. Bela Tarr’s Werkmeister Harmonies [ Werkmeister harmoniak ] (2000) and Nimrod Antal’s Control [ Kontroll ] (2003), films without overt historical markers, provide allegorical visions of societal unrest that can be read as allusions to millennial concerns.