Hungarian Literature Rears its Head in a Manly Fashion Cover Image

A magyar irodalom férfiasan kezdi fejét emelni
Hungarian Literature Rears its Head in a Manly Fashion

The Role of the Hungarian Scholarly Society’s Awards in the Appreciation of Literature (1831–1847)

Author(s): Lilla Szalisznyó
Subject(s): History, Cultural history, Political history, 19th Century
Published by: KORALL Társadalomtörténeti Egyesület
Keywords: history; history and literature; Hungarian Scholarly Society

Summary/Abstract: The 1831 regulations of the Hungarian Scholarly Society (A’ Magyar Tudós Társaság alaprajza és rendszabásai) summarises the remit of the institution in twelve points. With regard to its support of Hungarian literature, the document states that it will take part in the following activities: support national theatre by providing criticism, support national literature by launching prize competitions, finance the publication of the best manuscripts received, award money to previously published literary works selected by an award committee, and support the Hungarian translation of eminent foreign-language literary works ‘new and old alike’. The present study examines the literary competitions organised in the first decade of the society’s existence: the Drama Prize and the Grand Prize. The premise of the study is that the society was founded amidst the overhaul of literary life in Hungary, the process of modern disciplinarisation. By the foundation of professional institutions, literature was expected to both slot into a new system of disciplines and find a way to make its role appreciated by society at large. At the same time, besides consistently supporting the legitimisation of literature by inviting original work in competitions and awarding money prizes to new and already published Hungarian literary works, the Academy also legitimised the artistic programme of originality and encouraged the transformation and diversity of Hungarian literature’s disciplinary structure. It seems that the Academy’s communication in the annuals, which published the prize winners every two-three years, was purposefully conceived to give the impression of a dynamically evolving art form, appreciative of and responsive to both professional and national expectations. Contemporary readers were involved in the internal processes of literature in the making: the announcements included more than just the fact of awarding the prizes and the titles of winning works. They also published lists of other critically acclaimed literary works, as well as that the Academy appreciated the important role of both the financial and symbolic value of the prizes in their public evaluation. By examining the practice of weighing the applications as apparent in these reports, the study assesses the symbolic and financial value of the prizes awarded to understand the Academy’s role in the structural transformation of Hungarian literary culture and the ways they communicated this role in the Academy’s official bulletin.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 62
  • Page Range: 29-53
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: Hungarian