The Superego of the Transformation
By Endre Babus
Endre Babus provides an assessment of the operations of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, ten years old this year. From the very start the Court has not shirked controversy, through its interventionism.
This interventionism he traces to the particular circumstances in which it was conceived and born: its establishment was urged by the opposition parties during the historic discussions which led to the return to parliamentary democracy in 1989. It has led the Court into conflict with two governments so far and its interpretation of its own role has not won the acceptence of all jurists including some members of the Court itself.
A brief biographical sketch is provided of the first President of the Constitutional Court, László Sólyom.
Two Stories
by Attila Bartis
Attila Bartis is a native of Transylvania and has lived in Budapest since 1984. He has published one novel and a collection of short stories, A kéklő pára (The Blue Mist), from which these two stories have been taken. He is also a noted photographer. These, his first stories to appear in English, show are set in Transylvania and show the writer's
Poems
by Imre Oravecz
We publish five poems from Imre Oravecz's latest collection, Halászóember, (Fishing Man 1998) in Jascha Kessler's translation. The collection has been hailed as one of the most important to appear in years. In dry, unemotional prose poems Oravecz reconstructs the life of his native village in his childhood and in the remote past; he has created a requiem for a way of life now irrevocably disappearing from the Mátra mountains.
Circles of Hell
by Katalin Rayman
The author has had a distinguished career in literary translation. This extraordinary memoir is an account of the violent deaths of her father-in-law, first husband and second husband at the hands of those who served the three authoritarian regimes Hungary has had to endure during this century.
It is also an account of the courage of those who refused to serve.
Ten Years of Hard Labour
by Györgyi Kocsis
The author, a commentator on economic affairs, here reviews the trials and tribulations of the transition from a command to a free-market economy. Starting with the Libero year of 1989, when prices were freed, she describes the specifics of privatization, the growth of small and medium enterprises and the impact of foreign capital. The remedies taken after the overheating of the economy have led to stabilization.
The Non-Metropolitan Museum
By Ildikó Nagy
The critic, who specializes in 20th century Hungarian art, uses the publication of this book on the exhibitions at a little known provincial museum to tell the story of how it came to house the most important collection of contemporary art in the country.
The catalogues of the exhibitions mounted there, she points out, are themselves a comprehensive documentation of Hungarian art in this century. Indeed her review article itself is a comprehensive "and absorbing" account of the establishment of a cannon, which describes and weighs the individuals and groups central to this canon.
The true heroes of this tale are Péter Kovács and Márta Kovalovszky, who refused to be intimidated by the political climate of the Kádár years and turned the István Király Múzeum of Székesfehérvár into a Mecca for artists and art-lovers.
J'Accuse
by Péter Eszterházy
One of Hungary's leading novelists. muses on his family's links with the infamous namesake who was at the heart of the Dreyfus affair.
There Still Stands a City
by Frederick Turner
Although calling himself "a Candide" exploring Hungarian poetry, as a poet and translator the author has been engaged with Hungarian poetry for many years. In his review of two new anthologies of Hungarian poetry in English, he sketches out the status Hungarians have accorded to poetry and how poets have responded to this status.
Once Upon a Time in Central Europe
by W.L. Webb
In his review of three books of fiction, the former literary editor of The Guardian explores the otherness of the world that they depict and the strategies these writers have employed to handle this world.
A Crowning Achievement
by Zsuzsa Lovag
Zsuzsa Lovag is Director of the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest and her review of a collection of the late Éva Kovács' essays commemorates the work of one of Hungary's finest scholars of art history. She traces the meticulous research and knowledge of sources that hallmarked Kovács's scholarship.
János Kárpáti: András Szőllősy: His Stellar Position
The distinguished musicologist writes on the third "star of primary magnitudein the constellation of contemporary Hungarian music". This summation of András Szőllősy's work begins with a brief review of the composer's early career and, chiefly Italian, influences, and Professor Kárpáti goes on to dicuss his orchestral style, his return to vocal composition in 1982 and his chamber music.
A Hopeful Run
by Erzsébet Bori
"It has been a long time since we had such a good year," is how our film critic opens her report on the 1999 Film Week. She picks out Ildikó Enyedi's Simon Magus as the best film of the festival and takes pleasure in much else that was on offer. She highlights works which are alternative (Variations for Three), commercial (Péter Timár's 6:3) and one showing an old master back on form (Miklós Jancsó's The Lord's Lantern in Budapest).
