Utopia Between East and West in Hungarian Literature [Paperback]

This book focuses on the most important utopian and dystopian literary texts in nineteenth and twentieth-century Hungarian literature, and therefore widens the scope of the traditionally Anglophone canon. Utopian studies is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, and this research integrates literary hermeneutics with ideas and methods from political science and the history of ideas. In doing so, it argues that Hungarian utopianism was influenced by the regions (and Hungarian cultures) position of permanent liminality between Western and Eastern European patterns of power structures, social and political order. After a thorough methodological introduction, some early modern texts written in Hungary are discussed, while the detailed analyses focus on nineteenth-century texts, written by Bessenyei, Mad?ch, and J?kai, whereas the twentieth century is represented by Karinthy, Babits and Szathm?ri. In the interpretations the results of contemporary scholarship is applied, particularly the works of Lyman Tower Sargent, Gregory Claeys and F?tima Vieira. Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. The Circulation of Utopian Ideals in Hungary.- Chapter 3. The Moderate Optimism of the Enlightenment: Bessenyei in Totoposz.- Chapter 4. Failed Utopias in Human History: The Tragedy of Man by Imre Mad?ch.- Chapter 5. Utopia Proper in Hungarian Literature: Eternal Peace and Future Technology in M?r J?kais The Novel of the Century to Come.- Chapter 6. Gulliver in Hungary: Karinthys Faremido and Capillaria.- Chapter 7. Dystopia in Interwar Hungary: Pilot Elza or the Perfect Society by Mih?ly Babits.- Chapter 8. S?ndor Szathm?ris Dystopias and the Positivistic Simplification of Humans.- Chapter 9. Conclusion./

Czig?nyik succeed sin offering a study that is both innovative and complex. His method and the multitude of perspectives adopted show hermeneutical rigor, while maintaining the studys accessibility not only for the academic milieu, but also for the larger publil3^