Fodor’s Field Diary and the Writing of the Hungarian Imperial Self during World War I

Abstract

In his article Field Diary and the Writing of the Hungarian Imperial Self during World War Steven A.E. Jobbitt analyses a field diary written by the Hungarian geographer and botanist, Ferenc Fodor, who took part in a two-week geobotanical expedition to Bosnia-Hercegovina in the summer of 1917. Sponsored by the Hungarian Academy of Science, the expedition was part of a much broader Austro-Hungarian imperialist project in the Balkans during World War I. Close scrutiny of Fodor's field diary as a particular form of life writing provides important insight into the masculineimperialist fantasies that informed Hungary's mapping of the Balkans as both a geopolitical and civilizational space, and in so doing points to the conceptual tensions and existential anxieties that lay at the center of Fodor's own conception and negotiation of self. Jobbitt's analysis suggests that although not obvious, Fodor's field diary written during World War I represents trauma in its both personal and extended perspectives. Steven A.E. Jobbitt, Field Diary and the Writing of the Hungarian Imperial Self during World War I page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 17.3 (2015): Thematic Issue Life Writing and the Trauma of War. Ed. Louise O. Vasvari and I-Chun Wang