Abstract
Abstract In 1948, in the year it came to power, the Hungarian Communist Party began building its legitimacy, using the occasion of the centenary, by appropriating the legacy of the Revolution of 1848. The need for a revolutionary transformation of culture heralded the advent of the scientific materialist worldview. The popular education system, created as a channel of the cultural revolution, conveyed the findings of the various branches of science and arts, combined with the rhetoric of political propaganda, to the “working people.” Revolutionism, which the Marxist view of history elevated to prominence, soon gained ground in the interpretation of Hungarian literary history via the compilation of “progressive literary traditions.” Public educators' literary presentations in villages and cities, as well as articles and cheap publications produced in large quantities all served to promote this central principle. The author examines the representation and interpretation of János Arany's life and work in various textual and visual popular education products. Certain junctures and directions in Arany's life, used as guidelines of the presentations, were highlighted in the image of Arany mediated by filmstrips and newspaper articles to make him one of the “poets of freedom.” Publications intended for the cultural and political education of “working people” set out the way in which to relate to the poet and the framework for interpreting his writings. Through the Arany poems that popular educators employed in scientific education, the author points out the way in which textual and visual representations became carriers of added content in a given context and a possible means of the “rural class struggle.”
Highlights
1948 marks a turning point in the history of Eastern European states that entered the Soviet sphere after World War II: the era of short-lived democratic experiment(s) that started in 1945 came to an end with the local communist parties coming to power (KENEZ 2006:160–183)
The junctions in Janos Arany’s biography and oeuvre that allowed him to be included in the socialist literary canon were, not made up by socialism
The canonization of Arany was done by emphasizing his revolutionism and folklorism while attributing a decisive and instrumental role to Sandor Pet}ofi in the evolution of the poet’s life and the genesis of his writings
Summary
1948 marks a turning point in the history of Eastern European states that entered the Soviet sphere after World War II: the era of short-lived democratic experiment(s) that started in 1945 came to an end with the local communist parties coming to power (KENEZ 2006:160–183). The centenary of the 1848–49 Hungarian Revolution and antiHabsburg War of Independence provided a good opportunity for this, as the appropriation of the anniversary ensured an opportunity for the political representation of the new regime and its representatives (GER}o 1998:17).. For 1848–49 to serve as a reference for the communist regime, the framework for the interpretation of the Revolution and War of Independence needed to be defined and made exclusive. The ideology raised Lajos Kossuth, Sandor Pet}ofi, and Mihaly Tancsics as role models. Their portraits became indispensable accessories of the mass events of the centenary ceremonies, thereby visually becoming the “faces” of 1848–49. The leading politicians of the Communist Party conceived of themselves and wanted to be seen in relation to these prominent historical figures—as the custodians of the “legacy of Kossuth, Pet}ofi, and Tancsics” (cf. REVAI 1948).
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