BIBLIOGRAPHIA HUNGARICA: An Annotated Selection (1995).
Part 1


Art

HEGYI, Lóránd:
Alexandria
Pécs: Jelenkor,
243 p. (Ars Longa.)
ISBN 963-676-026-8

This volume includes two major studies written some ten years ago, and denied publication on ideological grounds before the change of system. It examines the shift in Hungarian art of the early eighties. The first essay clarifies the theoretical and aesthetic background as well as parallel developments in international art. The second discusses the historical evolution of the trans-avantgarde movement and portrays those artists who became the protagonists of the eighties.

RADNÓTI, Sándor:
Hamisítás
[Forgery]
Budapest: Magvetõ,
337 p.
ISBN 963-14-2022-1

The noted critic and aesthetician here scrutinises forgery in art. Inspired by a specific paradigm of modernism, the flood of marked and unmarked quotation in postmodern art, the author discusses art forgery as an aesthetic problem, gives a historical overview of the issues of originality, imitation, duplication, reproduction and repetition, and explores the perennial dichotomy of the true and the false.

SZILÁGYI, Gábor:
A film fogalma
[The concept of film.]
Budapest: Magyar Filmintézet, 336 p.

A novel approach to the cinema by an eminent student of the subject. He posits the whole issue at a focal point between film and spectator, the work of art and reception. Deploying the methods of psychology, sociology, semiotics, and other disciplines, the author takes stock of the characteristic features of the art movie and works towards a meta-theory of film.

Economics

KOPÁTSY, Sándor:
Van kiút!
[There is a way out!] Budapest: Belvárosi Könyvkiadó, 241 p.
ISBN 963-7675-66-3

A passionate, polemical book, challenging the conventional wisdom of economics and highlighting the fallacies and long-term negative effects
of restriction. Bolstering his case with examples of successful countries in Europe and Asia, the author argues for an alternative economic policy based not on short-term monetary considerations but on a much wider reservoir of social factors.

Ethnology-Ethnography

LAMMEL, Annamária -
NAGY, Ilona:
Parasztbiblia. Magyar népi biblikus történetek
[Peasant Bible. Hungarian folk tales on Biblical themes.]
Budapest: Osiris. 357 p. (Osiris könyvtár. Folklór.)
ISBN 963-379-111-1

This collection of folk tales based on the Bible covers a significant and partly uncharted area of Hungarian peasant culture. The texts gathered come from a wide variety of genres including myths, legends, fables, jests, prayers, magic formulae and so forth. First edition: 1985.

PENAVIN, Olga:
Jugoszláviai magyar diakrón népmesegyûjtemény. II. [Diachronic collection of Hungarian folk-tales in Yugoslavia. Vol. 2.] Újvidék/ Novi Sad: Forum Könyvkiadó, 376 p.
ISBN 86-323-0297-3

The author has done field work on Hungarian lore in Yugoslavia since the 1940s. This sequel to Volume 1, published in 1993, contains folk tales retaining the vernacular of the narrator. The publication of the huge corpus of Hungarian tales in Yugoslavia is concluded with this material collected in 1989 and 1990.

History

FÖLDESI, Margit:
A Szövetséges Ellenõrzõ Bizottság Magyarországon
[The Allied Control Commission in Hungary.] Budapest: IKVA, 203 p.
ISBN 963-265-050-6

The Allied Control Commission, was in charge of overseeing the armistice that ended Worl War II in 1945, right up to the Paris Peace Treaty in February 1947. From the beginning, the British and American staff (ca 200 persons altogether) were grossly outnumbered by the roughly 8000-strong Soviet section headed by Marshal Voroshilov. This was reflected in the unbridled domination by the Soviets of the Commission. It granted assistance to the Hungarian communists in their struggle for power. The book is based mostly on hitherto unpublished Anglo-American documents.

Hatalom és társadalom
a XX. századi magyar történelemben
[Politics and society in 20th- century Hungarian history.]
Ed. Tibor Valuch. Budapest: Osiris Kiadó - 1956-os Intézet, 702 p. ('56.)
ISBN 963-379-101-4

The material of the First Conference of Contemporary History held in 1994 in Debrecen contains 60 papers in 5 sections. Ferenc Glatz's study deals with the objectives and range of this specific field of history, a number of contributions discuss the methodology and potential sources of research, while the papers of three sections examine the relations between politics and social groups in concrete cases over the past eighty years.

Kelet és Nyugat között. Történeti tanulmányok Kristó Gyula tiszteletére
[Between East and West. Historical studies in honor of Gyula Kristó.] Ed. László Koszta. Szeged: Szegedi
Középkorász Mûhely, 521 p.
ISBN 963-482-083-2
Gyula Kristó is a distinguished professor of Medieval Studies at the József Attila University in Szeged. His influence has inspired Szeged medievalists. In this volume, 32 historians and scholars of cognate fields discuss a wide range of topics related to medieval Hungary.

A magyarok krónikája [Chronicle of the Magyars.]
Ed. Ferenc Glatz. Budapest: Officina Nova, 816 p.

This comprehensive, profusely illustrated tome is a new summary of Hungarian history from its beginnings up to the elections of 1994. The volume was compiled by Ferenc Glatz, a prominent historian and now President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, with contributions by many scholars.

MARÓTI, Egon:
Delphoi és a Pythia sportversenyei
[Sports competitions in
Delphoi and the Pythia.] Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 128 p. (Apollo könyvtár. 17.)
ISBN 963-05-6904-3

The noted Classical scholar at Szeged University writes on the Pythian Games and other athletic events of ancient Greece which were eclipsed by the exclusive attention given to Olympia. The first contest in Delphi, devoted to Apollo, dates back to 582 B.C.; the events included athletics and horse races as well as musical and artistic competitions, in harmony with Apollo's attributes.

NAGY, József:
IV. Károly.
Az utolsó magyar király
[Charles IV. The last King of
Hungary.] Budapest: Göncöl Kiadó, 199 p.
ISBN 963-7875-76-X

A biography and portrait of the last Austrian Emperor and King of Hungary, who ascended to the throne in 1916 following the death of his uncle Francis Joseph I. His short rule aimed at keeping the Habsburg Empire united by transforming it through reform and a federal structure. However, forces working for the Monarchy's dissolution during the last stage of World War I thwarted his aspirations and, after repeated attempts to become King of Hungary, Charles IV was forced into permanent exile and died on Madeira in 1922.

Law

SÁRI, János:
A hatalommegosztás történelmi dimenziói és mai értelme, avagy az alkotmányos rendszerek belsõ logikái
[The historical dimensions of power sharing and its significance today, or the inner logic of constitutional systems.] Budapest: Osiris, 254 p. (Osiris könyvtár. Politológia)
ISBN 963-379-114-6

A historical survey of the sharing and distribution of power and the institutional control of authority, including its legal and political ramifications. Starting with the common law of 17th-century England, Sári reviews the theories of Locke and focusses on the oeuvre of Montesquieu, which laid the basis for 'checks and balances', the guiding principle of the Constitution of the United States. He explores the theories of Rousseau and Hegel and takes stock of Hungarian aspirations (e.g. Lajos Kossuth, the 1848 Constitution, István Bibó, Zoltán Magyary) as well as dealing with pertinent questions in contemporary politics.

VARGA, Csaba:
Theory of the judicial process.
The establishment of facts
Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 249 p.
ISBN 963-05-6869-1

In this enlarged and revised version of the original Hungarian edition (1992) Professor Varga of Eötvös Loránd University investigates the judicial establishment of facts, the fundamentals of legal theory and practice, Kelsen's pure theory of law, and the application of law. He draws upon a wide range of disciplines including the philosophy of science, sociology and the philosophy of language.

Linguistics

BÁRDOSI, Vilmos:
De fil en aiguille. 1000 locutions francaises et leurs équivalents hongrois
Budapest: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, 287 p.

In this enlarged and revised edition of an original published in 1986, the author, an associate professor at Eötvös University Budapest has compiled a highly innovative dictionary of French-Hungarian idioms and phrases arranged in thematic order. The book includes an essay on phraseology, interesting exercises and indexes that provide easy access to the idioms.

HADROVICS, László:
Magyar frazeológia:
történeti áttekintés
[Hungarian phraseology: a historical overview.] Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 409 p.
ISBN 963-05-6880-2

An examination of the historical evolution and linguistic features of phrasemes, set phrases, proverbs and sayings in Hungarian. Following a theoretical exposition of phrasemes, the author surveys the monumental stock of Hungarian set phrases from grammatical, morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects.

Literary Studies

GOMBOS, Gyula:
Távolból is itthon
[From afar yet at home.] Budapest: Trikolor
Könyvkiadó, 302 p. (Örökségünk.)
ISBN 963-8352-52-3

A selection of writings by an émigré Hungarian writer who has lived far from Hungary since 1948. Gombos was a member of the great generation of populist writing in Hungarian. A series of portraits depict the major writers of the 1930s and 1940s, Péter Veres, László Németh and others. Gombos's essays on America in the 1960s display a specific Central European perspective.

GYÖRFFY, Miklós:
A német irodalom története
[The history of German literature.]
Budapest: Corvina, 160 p. (Egyetemi könyvtár.)
ISBN 963-13-4203-4

A chronological presentation of German-language literature from pagan German folklore up to the 1970s. Separate chapters are devoted to the great writers of universal significance. Works of art are analysed with a view to their specific German features.

Hajk és Bel harca
A régi örmény irodalom kincsestára
[The battle of Hayk and Bel. The treasure trove of Old Armenian literature.] Vol. 1. Antiquity - The Middle Ages. Ed. Ödön Schütz. Szombathely: Életünk, 310 p. (Bibliotheca Caucasica. Series
Armenica. 1.)
ISBN 963-7918-43-4

An anthology of Armenian literature from the beginnings of literacy through the literary records created under foreign oppression including myths, legends, laments as well as chronicles and novels from the advent of Christianity. Studies by the editor elucidate the background of the Armenian literary heritage.

HIMA, Gabriella:
Tu Felix Austria
Halál és mítosz a mai osztrák prózában
[Death and myth in contemporary Austrian prose.] Budapest: Széphalom
Könyvmûhely, 192 p.
ISBN 963-8277-57-2

The exuberance and excellence of 20th century Austrian literature from Rilke, Trakl, Kafka down to Handke is reminiscent of the flowering of Russian literature in the 19th century. The author's general overview of Austrian prose confirms that Austrian literature has had a crucial impact on German-language writing as well as on Central European literature as such.

K. JAKAB, Antal:
Átmenetek
[Transitions.] Miskolc: Felsõmagyarország, 120 p.
ISBN 963-7687-37-8

A collection of 16 essays by the editor of the Hungarian- language weekly Utunk (now called Helikon) in Kolozsvár (Cluj, Romania). Since his only book published in 1972 (The Night of Pronoun), he has been a celebrated and legendary figure whose writings on theoretical literary questions as well as on Transylvania-based Hungarian writers are veritable gems.

KULIN, Katalin:
Manuel Puig külön útja
[Manual Puig's way.] Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 154 p.
ISBN 963-05-6888-8

A monograph on the acclaimed Argentinian writer whose fame partly stems from the movie adaptations of his novels. Katalin Kulin, a scholar of comparative literature, examines Puig's oeuvre with a complex set of methods, analyses the interaction of film and prose imagery in his art and places his works in the context of 20th-century Latin American prose.

SZEGEDY-MASZÁK, Mihály:
"Minta a szõnyegen."
A mûértelmezés esélyei
[Figure in the carpet. The chances of critical interpretation.] Budapest: Balassi Kiadó, 268 p.

A collection of critical studies of the past decade, most of them originally published in Hungarian journals. Topics discussed include theoretical questions in Hungarian literature and, characteristic features of 19th-century Romantic literature. Commenting on a work by Henry James, it discusses the role of metaphor in the structure of the literary work. In the concluding chapter the oeuvres of Dezsõ Kosztolányi and Sándor Márai are assessed from the perspective of modern criticism.

Memoirs

KOSZTOLÁNYI, Károly:
Emlékezéseim.
A bölcsõtõl a hontalanságig [Memories. From the cradle
to exile.] Lakitelek: Antológia, 207 p.
ISBN 963-650-247-1

Kosztolányi, who worked at Nancy University, gives an account of his life in Hungary up to his escape to the West after the 1956 Revolution. As a young engineer he was arrested in 1952 and together with his father, brother and many others was sentenced to life imprisonment on false charges of anticommunist conspiracy. He was released from prison on November 1, 1956 and, anticipating the impending retribution by Kádár's regime, he escaped to the West in January 1957. The chapters on the Revolution experienced inside the prison and the period up to his escape are especially interesting.

MOZSIK, Imre:
Washingtoni emberünk. Hírszerzõ voltam Amerikában
[Our man in Washington.
I was an intelligence agent in America.] Budapest: Helikon, 301 p.
ISBN 963-208-345-8

An enthralling account by a high-ranking officer of Hungarian military intelligence, the military attaché at the Hungarian embassy in Washington for some twenty years.

RÁCZ, Erzsébet:
Feljegyzések a vihar kapujában.
Emlékezés Tildy Zoltánra
[Notes at the gate of the storm. Remembering Zoltán Tildy.] Budapest: Ráday Gyüjtemény, 489 p. (Ráday Gyüjtemény tanulmányai. 6.)
ISBN 963-82-99-03-7

The author of this memoir was the secretary of Zoltán Tildy, the Calvinist minister who became the first president of the Hungarian Republic in 1946. Her authentic diary on the period from 1945 to 1949 recorded the events in Tildy's office, first in full detail then, sensing that the notes could endanger her family, in terse and fragmented observations. She guarded her manuscript in secret for almost four decades. It could eventually be published after her death.

Minorities

CSISZTAY, Gizella:
Magyarok északon: Közösségi élet a svédországi magyar emigrációban 1956 után
[Hungarians in the North: the communal life of Hungarian
exiles in Sweden.]
Kecsmetion Press, 106 p.
ISBN 963-85384-1-4

The first detailed account of Hungarians who were forced into exile after the 1956 Revolution and who settled in Sweden. The first part contains a short summary of the situation of Hungarian exiles citing a number of original documents. The second part is a series of interviews with prominent Hungarians in Sweden.

KÖPECZI, Béla:
Nemzetképkutatás és a XIX. századi román irodalom magyarságképe
[National self-image and the reflection of Hungarians
in 19th-century Romanian literature.] Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 245 p.
ISBN 963-05-6889-6

The central theme of this collection of studies is the complex question of Hungarian-Romanian relations. Köpeczi investigates the paramount features of national self-image, Romanian as well as Hungarian, focusing on specific topics like the merits and demerits of the great Romanian writer Eminescu.

Magyarok kisebbségben
és szórványban
[Hungarians as
a minority and in the diaspora.] Ed. András D. Bán et al. Budapest: Teleki László Alapítvány, XIX, 732 p.
(A magyarságkutatás könyvtára. 16.)
ISBN 963-85166-6-6

A selection of 184 documents covering the period 1921 to 1944 from the archives of the Department of Minorities, the official state body responsible for minorities in Hungary and for Hungarians in minority status in the interwar years. Arranged by regions and in chronological order, the sources (confidential reports, studies, letters) concern the life and conditions of the Hungarians in seceded territories after the Treaty of Trianon, as well as Hungarian exiles in the West.

Változásban?
Elemzések a romániai magyar társadalomról
[A-changing? Analyses of Hungarian society in Romania.]
Ed. Endre Túrós. Csíkszereda: Pro-Print Könyvkiadó, 259 p.
(Helyzet könyvek.)

This publication by the Center of Regional and Anthropological Research of Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc, Romania) supported by the Soros Foundation attempts to draw an authentic picture of the structures, components and changing elements of Hungarian society in Romania. It challenges the dominant views as ideologically distorted and emotionally laden. Topics examined include the assessment of the relation to Hungary after the Hungarian election in 1994, generational problems, pauperization and the new economic élite in Transylvania.

Music

LENDVAI, Ernõ:
Symmetrien in der Musik Kecskemét-Wien: Kodály Institut-Universal Edition,
173 p.
ISBN 3-7024-0218-7

Original English edition: 1993. Lendvai probes into the primeval and fundamental features of music, the axis system and the golden section, demonstrating his theses with abundant examples from music history. Lendvai's unique and original concepts appear in his studies on the relations of tonality and atonality, the principles of harmony in the pentatonic-chromatic and the diatonic-overtone system and in his last, hitherto unpublished essay, a computer model of traditional harmony.

Philosophy

Vallásfilozófia Magyarországon. A hazai egyházak szellemi helyzete
[Philosophy of religion in Hungary. The intellectual position of Hungarian churches.] Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Filozófiai Intézete - Áron Kiadó, 243 p.
ISBN 963-85504-0-6
Proceedings of the congress held October 9-11, 1995 at Dunabogdány. The 16 papers address various issues of theoretical interest or practical relevance in Central Europe and Hungary. Authors include Zoltán Endreffy, György Gábor, Özséb Horányi, Ferenc L. Lendvai, Miklós Maróth, and Miklós Tomka.

Psychology

BODROG, Miklós:
Álmaink barlangvilága.
C. G. Jung nyomában
[The caverns of our dreams. In the wake of C. G. Jung.] Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 162 p. (Hermész könyvek.)
ISBN 963-05-6933-7

An expert's 'expedition' into the collective unconscious, Bodrog, a psychiatrist, explores the dream theory of Carl Gustav Jung. The author reviews a large number of Jung's analyses of concrete dreams as well as many cases from his own practice.

KULCSÁR, Zsuzsanna:
Korai személyiségfejlõdés
és én-funkciók
[Early personality development and functions of the ego.] Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 336 p.

An outline and critique of the psychoanalytical theories of personality development set against recent findings in experimental development at psychology and neurophysiology.

NEMES, Lívia:
Alkotó és alkotás. Pszichoanalitikus esszék [Creator and creation.
Psycho-analytical essays.] Budapest: T-Twins Kiadó,
184 p.
ISBN 963-7977-77-5

The author, a prominent member of the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis, focuses on individual cases of writers and investigates the secrets of creativity. She examines the poetry of Kosztolányi, Babits, and Attila József and makes an attempt at drawing out the common traits of the poetic mind and verbal creativity.

Politics

BOZÓKI, András:
Konfrontáció és konszenzus.
A demokratizálás stratégiái
[Confrontation and consensus. Strategies for democratization.]
Szombathely: Savaria University Press, 347 p. (Átiratok.)
ISBN 963-8275-31-6

This collection of ten articles examines the great shift during the years 1988-1991. Although the period is too recent for a proper historical perspective, Bozóki concludes that there is no single model for transition, and prevailing theories of democracy must be revised in the light of recent events. Bill Lomax is the co-author of the study on the parallels between Portuguese, Spanish and Hungarian transition.

Európa zsebkönyv.
Az Európai Unió és Magyarország
[Europa pocket-book.
The European Union and Hungary.] Ed. Mrs. Hargita et al.
Budapest: Euration - Hans Seidel Alapítvány, 274 p.
ISBN 963-04-5852-7

Hungarian experts survey a whole range of issues in order to prepare Hungarian society for full European Union membership. Topics range from various organizations and administrative bodies to policies on trade, environment, law, state security, information, development programs, standards and agreements.

HUSZÁR, Tibor:
A hatalom rejtett dimenziói: Magyar Tudományos Tanács, 1948-1949.
[The hidden dimensions of power. The Hungarian Scientific Council, 1948-1949.] Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 378 p.
ISBN 963-05-6867-5

Huszár investigates a crucial period in Hungarian history, when following the communist takeover the whole spectrum of science and research -  like all facets of society -  was restructured along the lines of collectivist dictates. Drawing upon archival sources the author, a sociologist, sheds light on the process of Soviet-style purges and the destruction of autonomy in higher education and academia.

LENGYEL, László:
A kisnyúl pártján
[On the bunny's side.] Budapest: Officina Nova,
336 p.
ISBN 963-477-056-8

"When the hunter takes aim at the bunny, I side with the bunny, and when the bunny nibbles at the cabbage, I side with the cabbage." This saying by Elek Benedek, the great writer and story-teller, is cited here in praise of fables. It is the author's own credo. This volume is a collection of 37 essays written over the years on topical issues of politics and literature by a social scientist and keen observer of social phenomena.

Magyarország politikai évkönyve 1995.
[Political yearbook of
Hungary.] Eds. Sándor Kurtán, Péter Sándor, László Vass. Budapest: Demokrácia Kutatások Magyar Központja Alapítvány, 838 p.
ISSN 0864-7755

The 8th volume of a series published since 1988 is a comprehensive overview of Hungary's political life in 1994. The panorama includes a chronicle of events, analyses of the elections by a number of prominent political writers, features on the parties, legislation, economic policy, constitutional debates and, national security, as well as relevant documents. Several papers explore the current state of privatization and the findings of public opinion polls. A wide range of social questions (e.g. the economic élite, the structure of Hungarian society, the state pension fund) are also addressed.

Sociology

FALUSNÉ SZIKRA, Katalin:
The position and conditions of intellectuals in Hungary
Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó,
187 p.
ISBN 963-05-6870-5

An overview of the economic situation of Hungarian intellectuals in the final period of the Kádár regime and the years following the change of system. The author focuses on key groups of the intelligentsia, managers, engineers, doctors and educators, as well as on the specific problems of young professionals.

KÉZDI, Balázs:
A negatív kód
Kultúra és öngyilkosság
[The negative code. Culture and suicide.] Pécs: Pro Pannonia Kiadói Alapítvány, 155 p. (Pannónia könyvek.)
ISBN 963-7272-89-5

Based upon his experience at a mental hygiene institute and a helpline-phone service, the author, a psychiatrist and professor at Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, explores the phenomenon of self-destruction in general and suicide in Hungary in particular. Analysing the callers' manner of speech, he detects a negative grammar or "negative code" in his terminology. Reflecting on Hungarians' strong suicidal tendencies, he traces these to the emphatic presence of the negative code in the semiotic system of Hungarian culture.

Compiled by Zsolt Bánhegyi


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