The experience of living as a minority in Transcarpathia between the two world wars

Abstract

The territory of the Transcarpathian region was an organic part of Hungary before the peace agreement that ended the First World War. After the region joined Czechoslovakia, the concept of Transcarpathians, Transcarpathian Hungarians was formed. Since literature reflects reality to a greater or lesser extent, we assume that the works written in this region contain linguistic, cultural and other elements of the existence of people who all of a sudden found themselves in a minority status. Thus, after analyzing samples of artistic prose written between the two world wars, we will be able to highlight certain aspects of the process of formation of the existence of a minority. The novel "Water Runs Between Two Shores" by the Hungarian writer Mihály Tamás depicts the period when Transcarpathian Hungarians suddenly found themselves in the status of a minority, and the Czech artist Ivan Olbracht highlights in his works the situation of two other ethnic groups at that time - Jews and Ukrainian Ruthenians. An analysis of the prose of two writers will provide an opportunity to trace how the representatives of various ethnic groups living in the territory of modern Transcarpathia reacted to changes in social, political, economic, linguistic, and cultural circumstances, and how the multilingual colorful cultural reality is reflected on the pages of the works. Keywords: Transcarpathia (Subcarpathian Rus), multilingualism, minority, identity.