Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Utopia Between East and West in Hungarian Literature

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Zsolt Czigányik

    1. Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Awarded the Publication Excellence Prize by the Faculty of Humanities of ELTE University in Budapest
  • Provides the first comprehensive study of Hungarian utopian literature in English
  • Seeks to understand Central Europe through the differences between Eastern and Western utopian thought

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Utopianism (PASU)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 1-37

  3. The Circulation of Utopian Ideals in Hungary

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 39-63

  4. The Moderate Optimism of the Enlightenment: Bessenyei in Totoposz

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 65-92

  5. Failed Utopias in Human History: The Tragedy of Man by Imre Madách

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 93-119

  6. Utopia Proper in Hungarian Literature: Eternal Peace and Future Technology in Mór Jókai’s The Novel of the Century to Come

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 121-151

  7. Gulliver in Hungary: Karinthy’s Faremido and Capillaria

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 153-180

  8. Dystopia in Interwar Hungary: Pilot Elza or the Perfect Society by Mihály Babits

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 181-200

  9. Sándor Szathmári’s Dystopias and the Positivistic Simplification of Humans

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 201-233

  10. Conclusion

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages 235-245

  11. Correction to: Utopia Between East and West in Hungarian Literature

    • Zsolt Czigányik
    Pages C1-C2

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 247-252
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book focuses on the most important utopian and dystopian literary texts in nineteenth and twentieth-century Hungarian literature, and therefore widens the scope of the traditionally Anglophone canon. Utopian studies is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, and this research integrates literary hermeneutics with ideas and methods from political science and the history of ideas. In doing so, it argues that Hungarian utopianism was influenced by the region’s (and Hungarian culture’s) position of permanent liminality between Western and Eastern European patterns of power structures, social and political order. After a thorough methodological introduction, some early modern texts written in Hungary are discussed, while the detailed analyses focus on nineteenth-century texts, written by Bessenyei, Madách, and Jókai, whereas the twentieth century is represented by Karinthy, Babits and Szathmári. In the interpretations the results of contemporary scholarship is applied, particularly the works of Lyman Tower Sargent, Gregory Claeys and Fátima Vieira. 

Reviews

“I regard this as a major work that invites comparison with other fictional philosophical treatments of artificial intelligence. Czigányik’s rich overview of the unique Hungarian contribution to the common utopian tradition should secure recognition of Hungary’s rightful place in it and stimulate needed further research.” (Ralph Dumain, Hungarian Cultural Studies, Vol. 16, 2023)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    Zsolt Czigányik

About the author

Zsolt Czigányik is Associate Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. He has been a visiting professor at Central European University, and a scholar at the Gerda Henkel Foundation. His research focuses on the interaction of politics and literature in modern and contemporary prose, especially in utopian and dystopian literature.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Utopia Between East and West in Hungarian Literature

  • Authors: Zsolt Czigányik

  • Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Utopianism

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09226-8

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-09225-1Published: 02 January 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-09228-2Published: 03 January 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-09226-8Published: 01 January 2023

  • Series ISSN: 2946-4471

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-448X

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 252

  • Topics: European History, History, general, European Literature

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation