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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 30-3-174
TITLE:             The Hungarian Cultural Journal "Kortars" - A Review of its February Number
BY:                
DATE:              1958-3-13
COUNTRY:           Hungary
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  Hungarian Research
THEMATIC SUBJECTS: Hungary--1956-1965, Hungary--Literature, Cultural Policy

--- Begin ---

"E" DISTRIBUTION - 290

13 MARCH 1958

RFE NEWS & INFORMATION SERVICE - EVALUATION AND RESEARCH SECTION

Background Report
(Hungarian Research)

THE HUNGARIAN CULTURAL JOURNAL "KORTARS"--
A REVIEW OP ITS FEBRUARY NUMBER*

The periodical "Kortars" is one of the accurate reflections of
contemporary Hungarian literature. The paper was first published
in September 1957 as a literary and critical monthly. At the time
the government was trying to find the path of peace with the
writers and used conciliatory tones. From the literary and
critical articles published in "Kortars" a certain degree of
freedom and independence could undoubtedly be ascertained, in
spite of occasional assertions of official government policy.
"Kortars" does not belong to any of the political organs. Its
editors are: Jozsef DARVAS and Gabor TOLNAI.

The following is a summary of its February number.

The contributors are rather mixed: most of them are politically
undistinguished and the articles are mostly non-political. The
better-known contributors are:

Laszlo NEMETH: an excerpt from his dramatical work "Samson".
Sandor WEORES:. surrealist poems.
Geza FEJA: "The Enigma of Gyula JU1IASZ" an essay.
Populist writer Andras FODOR: some poem.
Populist writer Jozsef ERDELYI: a poem.

Professor Jozsef WALDAPFEL: essay on Gorky and Madach.
Other items included:

An essay on Petru GROZA by Bela KOPECZI, employee of the chief
directorate of a ministry; two poems "by Jozsef NADASS, old
* This paper is a supplement to Hungarian Research Background
Report of March 7 "The Situation of the Hungarian Writers after
the Revolution" (from July 1957).

[Page 2]

BACKGROUND REPORT No. 290,

Social Democrat poet; poems by a number of authors less
significant politically; Memorial on Andor Gabor, by Andras DIOSZEGI;
Poems by Sandor RAKOS, Andras SIMOR, Otto DEMENY, Zoltan CSUKA,
Lajos SIMON, Janos NEMETH, Eela CSEPELI SZABO, Margit SZECSI,
Gyula SIPOS and LAJOS FEKETE.

In the theatrical column, Imre DEMETER, an old sympathizer of
Imre NAGY, reports on the theatrical events of the season.   There
is an essay on Francoise SAGAN by Bela ABODI, hook reviews  by
Lajos MESTERHAZI, Pal PANDI, Janos KELEMEN and others.

The two most interesting articles, essays on literary criticism,
were written by Miklos SZABOLCSI and Gyorgy BESSENYEI.

"The face of a Generation" Article.

Miklos SZABOLCSI "The Face of a Generation?" covered an anthology
of poems by 15 young poets. This anthology was published in 1957
and comprised 105 poems by 15 young poets, edited by Istvan SIMON.

SZABOLCSI compares this volume with a similar publication in 1952.

The first anthology was characterized by an enthusiasm
ringing true at the time, for Party, the people, the
building of socialism, but also by many cliches, much
schematism and many empty phrases...

There is nothing similar in this new volume. There is
no schematism, no enthusiasm and no formalistic
stumbling. On the contrary!

According to SZABOICSI, the poems of this anthology are characterised
by

formalistic routine, a uniformly high standard,, daring
imagery, richness of rhythm and poetical forms, a certain
chiseled smoothness and in general an evenly high level of
poetical culture.

SZABOLCSI seems to recognise in the work of the young poets the
influence of Attila Jozsef, Gyula ILLYSS and to a lesser degree that of
Babits, Arpad Toth Kosztolanyi and Sandor WEORES.

The most interesting assertion is that the young poets are
characterized by a disinterest in politics.

[Page 3]

BACKGROUND REPORT No.290,

How moving is this struggle of the young: for themselves,
for their place in the world, their wish for a beautiful
life, for a world of true humanity; how dearly they
attempt to see things in the chaos of the past years, and
how they guard their ideals in spite of occasional
deviations.

According to SZABOLCSI, the poems reflect the strain of our years
This worries him.

Each one of these young poets started out on his path in
the years when democracy and its achievements are natural
conditions to them, unnecessary to be discussed. They speak
rather of other things: of the basic disturbing impressions
of their homelessness. These hide behind their chiseled
forms, suggested in the images they describe, impregnating
their subjects.

SZABOLCSI tries to explain the reason.

Values were shattered in them and new ones not yet created;
disillusionment and uncertainty, bitterness, reaching the
point of opposition and sadness took hold of them.

Apart from "dogmatical constraint and distortions** the obstacles of the
development of this generation are:

The breakdown and deformation of our development, its fault:
and its extremes. Everyone of us has been subjected to
manifold and complex influences and this mainly applies to the
sensitive young intellectuals; the tumbling down of ideals,
parents' complaints, financial and personal worries. All
these factors were strengthened by the direct or indirect
influence of petty bourgeois ideology, that of literary.
circles, sometimes in the form of a healthy initiative but
sometimes also in the form of snobism by the unsatisfactory
guidance of Communist literature the constant alternatives
of either rigidity or liberalism. All these had a
destructive effect on youth and drove them into despair or mostly
into withdrawal.

This retrospection, this lack of revealing themselves, characterize
our generation of the young writers.

[Page 4]

BACKGROUND REPORT No.290,

Reserve instead of revealing themselves, the cult of
life's drabness and not its colorful aspects, obstinate
stiltedness and not the free flow of words are
characteristic.

The poets have withdrawn into private life but

In poems about loves grief, awkardness and escape are
the dominating features. Life, external realism -- 
however much they influence the young and however much they
try to get a hold on them -- very often appear in the
poems conventionalized, apologetically and as seen trough
the dense filter of literary and fashionable drifts...

The young poets look back at the thirties: they try to get into
contact with the Hungarian and Western European poetry of that time.

From the lyrical poetry of the thirties they have not only
taken over the tone but the ideology and the subjects as
well, as if the attitude of 1935 could also be continued in
1955 in point of time, ideology and subject.

There must be no misunderstanding. I have no longing for
the direct, political poetry, the schematism of 1955, nor
do I miss the instant reaction to any political events
but I certainly do miss the thousandfold colors of reality,
the aspects of the new, world and its impetus on our present
poetry... also the problems of our era, its dizzy speed,
its results and failures and new ideas. All these are left
out by our young poets, who shut themselves off from these
realities.

BESSENYEI's Article on Dezso Szabo

The study by Gyorgy BESSENYEI (the name is unknown and presumably a
cover name. Ed note)  raises an argument against an earlier study on
Dezso Szabo by Sandor ERDEI, also published in "Kortars." BESSENYEI
does not see so many elements pointing to the future in DEZSO SZABO's
0works as ERDEI seems to have done.

A great impact, a great popularity do not always mean
great value. Dezso Szabo's popularity is due to a
generation stubling along a false track. His ringing half-truth

[Page 5]

BACKGROUND REPORT, No.290,

not only made people realize the truth but also misguided
them.

Neither does BESSENYBI agree with the statement by ERDEI that Dezso
Szabo's race theory is unanswerable.

Both Ady and Dezso Szabo became disappointed in the liberal
illusions of the forty-eights. Ady took a turn for
radicalism whereas Dezso Szabo does not advance but retracts...

The withdrawal to earlier periods caused by disillusion
over the ideals of the last century resulted in his
reverting to the former eras of feudalism and Catholicism.

To solve the problems of mixed-up classes and national
oppression, he accepted (i.e. formed his own special race
theory,) the alien conception of capitalist democracy as
a remedial recourse.

Dezso Szabo would like to exchange capitalism for a collective state
set up on a racial basis.

He was well aware of the contradictions existing within
bourgeois society. In contrast with several of his
contemporaries, he did not stop at mere criticism but tried to
find a solution. It is here that he reached a dead-end and
arrived at the most inhuman, reactionary ideology.

Although Dezso Szabo enthusiastically welcomed the victory of
proletarian dictatorship, he soon turned away from it. According to BESSENYEI,
his starting point and his theoretical basis were wrong.

He .attributes to growing Jewish influence all the
shortcomings and backwardness of the Hungary of his generation...
this is the racial point of view which excludes all
possibilities of a realistic evaluation of historical processes.

Dezso Szabo also comes into contradiction with the "populist" writers:

The efforts of populist writers to achieve realism, their
Strong need for truth irreconciliably clash with his irra-

[Page 6]

BACKGROUND REPORT, No.290,

tional, mythologic, mystical, peasant ideology. In his
anti-German comments made from a racial basis, the tone
sometimes surpassed the anti-German attitude of "Szep
Szo" and its circle and yet, with his racial theory,
he built an impenetrable wall between himself and this
group also. His isolation is not the Ady-type loneliness
of the revolutionary who is in advance of his time; it
is that of a man struggling along on separate and wrong
tracks.

End.

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