Hungarian Popular Literature

Gorombei, Andras

The tragedy of Versailles (Trianon) along with the desperate social conditions of the country awakened a national and social responsibility amongst a generation of young Hungarian writers in the 1920's and 1930's. They saw the country in extreme danger from both a national and a social viewpoint.

These individuals set themselves the goal of establishing a new Hungarian nation based upon social equality and national liberty. The members of the popular movement viewed democratic transformation as urgent to ensure the survival of the Hungarian nation. They all had a rural background and wished to form a democratic Hungary by liberating social classes previously excluded from the nation. Thus their most important endeavour was the economic and political liberation of the peasantry and to create a new national consciousness based on the European model.

They believed it important that the new intelligentsia take responsibility for the Hungarian nation. Yet, the Hungarian point of view never meant nationalism. The lecture presents the history of the movement with reference to the works of László Németh and Gyula Illyés from this angle.

About the lecturer