The course introduces international students to a selection of twentieth-century and contemporary Hungarian literature, focusing on both poetry and short fiction, and attempting to provide at least a basic overview of the most important literary trends and authors from the beginnings of Modernism to the present. Authors to discuss may include the most important members of the Nyugat circle and also the later generations of poets and prose writers whose contributions to Hungarian literature have been significant since the beginning of the 1900s (e.g. Endre Ady, Gyula Krúdy, Mihály Babits, Dezső Kosztolányi, Frigyes Karinthy, Zsigmond Móricz, Attila József, Antal Szerb, Sándor Weöres, Sándor Márai, Miklós Radnóti, Lőrinc Szabó, István Örkény, Géza Ottlik, Magda Szabó, György Petri, etc). Film adaptations of Hungarian literature may also be included in the course, e.g. Love, dir. Károly Makk, based on Tibor Déry’s short story; Szindbád, dir. Zoltán Huszárik, based on Gyula Krúdy’s short stories; Fateless, dir. Lajos Koltai, based on Imre Kertész’ novel, etc.

Required and recommended reading: 

Required reading:

Selections from:

VAJDA,  Miklós  (ed). Modern Hungarian Poetry. Budapest, Corvina, 1977.

BART,  István (ed).  The Kiss: 20th century Short Stories.  Budapest, Corvina, 2005.

FARKAS , F. (transl). The Messenger. 44 Hungarian Short Stories, Corvina, Budapest, 1979.

Recommended reading: 

  OTTLIK , Géza. School at the Frontier. New York: Harcourt, 1966. 

ÖRKÉNY , István. One-Minute Stories. Brandl and Schlesinger, Sydney, 1994

WEÖRES , Sándor. Eternal Moment – Selected Poems. Corvina, Budapest, 1988.

Selected articles from The New Hungarian Quarterly.