Undoing the Collective Amnesia: A Brief Discussion of Feminism and Women Writers in Hungary
Agnes Vashegyi MacDonald, University of Woman authors in Hungary in the British Columbia, was born in Budapest, early part of the twentieth century made a Hungary, and she moved to Canada in 1991. significant impact on Hungarian literature, Her PhDs is in Comparative Literature and culture and society. Many of them were her research interests include twentieth affected by and also influenced the early century Central European culture with a feminist movement in that country which special interest in women authors. emerged as a result of rapid social and political change triggered by industrialization Abstract and urbanization. Following the 1867 This paper expands on current studies that Compromise between Austria and Hungary, examine the history of Hungarian feminism which placed the two powers on more or less while making links with the discourse of late equal political footing within the Habsburg nineteenth and early twentieth century women Monarchy, the women's movement and writers. Issues of suffrage, public health, women's literature began to bourgeon in the prostitution, and the challenging of patriarchal region ushering in cultural modernity. As ideologies and structures were key subjects Judith Szapor explains, "women's for feminists and women writers in Hungary. movements, including a full-fledged feminist Résumé movement, were an integral part of the rich Cet article élabore sur les études courantes and colorful political spectrum of qui examinent l’histoire du féminisme turn-of-the-century Hungary" (Szapor 2004, hongrois tout en faisant des liens entre les 191). However, neither then nor during the discours d’écrivaines de la fin du dix- following one hundred years have scholars neuvième siècle et du début du vingtième paid much attention to the many and rich siècle. Les questions de suffrage, de santé documents and sources available about publique, de prostitution, et les idéologies et women authors and feminism in Hungary: les structures patriarcales compliquées "the history of women's movements is a sadly étaient les sujets clés pour les féministes et neglected field in Hungarian scholarship" les écrivaines en Hongrie. (Szapor 2004, 189). The few noteworthy studies about Hungarian women are exceptions to the rule. As Agatha Schwartz explains in her book, Shifting Voices, an ongoing prejudice in Hungary proclaims "feminism [as] foreign to the Hungarian tradition" (2008, 13). Hungarian feminists' and women writers' contributions have been undervalued or misinterpreted in terms of quality, aesthetics and reason both in Hungary and internationally (Schwartz 2008; Szapor 2004). In accordance with Szapor and Schwartz, the Hungarian feminist scholar Judit Acsády elucidates that feminism as a social movement was considered to be a
108 Atlantis 35.1, 2010 PR www.msvu.ca/atlantis "brutal attack on respected traditions in more recent feminisms that have more Hungary" (Acsády 1999a, 59). During her directly addressed questions of class, race research in the 1990s, Acsády met several and sexual orientation, the project of scholars in Hungary who denied the history feminism historically and contemporarily is to and existence of a women's movement in connect theory with practice. Hungary, or who argued that feminism should Women's literature and canon not be considered part of mainstream formation have been hampered by women's Hungarian history. These perspectives, based imposed social position, sex-role stereotypes, on the legacy of over forty years of and the widespread notion that they are less communist dogma, which alleged women's creative than men. They have had the equality and consequently afforded no special formidable task of overcoming their role as recognition, and of patriarchal traditions of the objects of art and subjects of literature, past centuries, have all marked and damaged produced by men, and taking charge of feminist efforts. Thanks to the research of writing about their experiences. Western Szapor, Schwartz, Acsády and their feminist criticism considers Virginia W oolf's colleagues in and outside of Hungary, several literary work probing the idea of women's important documents, periodicals and books difference as inscribed in their writings as a dedicated to Hungarian feminism and women touchstone of modern feminist thought. authors have been uncovered in library Following Mary Jacobus and other archives and private collections in the past Anglo-American contemporary feminist decade.1 This paper endeavours to scholars I pose the following questions about complement these scholars' works by Hungarian women's literary works: "what is bringing attention to the interconnectedness the nature…of women's writing?" and of Hungarian feminism and women writers furthermore, "can women adapt traditionally during the late nineteenth and early twentieth male dominated modes of writing and centuries in order to stretch the boundaries analysis to the articulation of female and seek a forum of diversity in feminist oppression and desire?" (Jacobus 1986, 30, history. 32). To this effect, I see Hungarian women's We ought to understand the literature between the late nineteenth and development of the Hungarian women's early twentieth century as diverse and movement in the context of Western sometimes contradictory in its affiliation to feminism and also as specifically situated in feminist ideology, for which a conceptual order to foster the desire for diversity and to framework that allows for gaps and respond to the issue of omission within inconsistencies ought to be further developed. feminist inquiry. Exposing the structure of Most of the material available concerns the patriarchal society, its oppression of women, lives and works of Hungarian bourgeois and and finding ways to overcome women's noble women authors and feminists of the late subjugated position, thereby (re)constructing nineteenth and early twentieth centuries women's history and participation in society, without including the existence of working- politics, sciences, arts and literature, have class and Roma women's efforts and been the chief aims of both Western and contributions. While the middle- and Hungarian feminists. In this respect, Western upper-class women authors most certainly feminist critique investigates biological represent a privileged group and an elitist determinism vis á vis the social construction culture, we ought to acknowledge their of gender, along with androgyny, language, struggle in breaking through the androcentric and cultural imperialism as some of the main barriers of Hungarian patriarchy and literary tenets in order to seek out an alternative modernism. feminist epistemology. From the first wave of In the late 1800s, access to and the feminism that fought for universal suffrage improvement of women's education became and demanded the equality of the sexes, to a priority for many in Hungary and this issue
www.msvu.ca/atlantis PR Atlantis 35.1, 2010 109 was contextualized in a rhetoric of national they can nevertheless be considered the independence from the Habsburg House. In forerunners of women's political organizations her weekly journal, Családi kör [Family in Hungary. Circle], established in 1860, Emilia Kánya, a Three main branches of the women's middle-class writer and divorcée, spoke out movement had formed in Hungary around the against women's oppression and lack of turn of the twentieth century: bourgeois education. As Schwartz explains, Kánya feminists, socialists, and Christian "without challenging women's role of wife and conservative women's organizations (Szapor mother...demanded the opportunity for 2004, 192). Besides making way for ideas of unmarried or widowed women to make an suffrage, they also addressed social income" (2008, 14). At about the same time, problems, workplace conditions and the progressive Hungarian education reformer educational opportunities for women (Acsády Count József Eötvös urged the establishment 1999b, 246; Szapor 2004). The first of teacher training colleges for women. generation of Hungarian feminist leaders However, he also expressed conservative came from the Association of Women Clerks views about girls' upbringing and training in who formed the Magyar Feministák accordance with "the feminine vice" (Szegvári Egyesülete [Hungarian Association of 1981, 126). Also, several women's Feminists] in December 1904. The majority of organizations formed in an effort to fight for them were middle-class educated urbanites women's education, such as the Mária from assimilated Jewish families, some Dorothea Egyesület [Maria Dorothea married and others single, and included such Association] in 1885, Országos Nõképzõ prominent leaders as Rózsa -Egyesület [National Association for Women's Bédy-Schwimmer (1877-1948) and Vilma Education] in 1868, Országos Nõiparegylet Glücklich (1872-1927) (Szapor 2004). They [National Women's Employment Association] believed in an "új tipusú nõ," that is, a "new in 1879, and Nõtisztviselõk Országos type of woman," an educated and Egyesülete [National Association of Women independent person with a professional public Office Workers] in 1897. Due to the efforts of livelihood (Szapor 2004, 198). Socialist Pálné Veres major improvements were also women were associated with the Social made in women's educational opportunities Democrats who were active among factory by the late 1890s, resulting in women's workers. Tied to party and union rhetoric, their enrollment in university arts and medical efforts in the beginning emphasized the science programmes, including pharmacy advancement of the class struggle. Their (Fábri 1996).2 As Schwartz observes, it took leader, Mariska Gárdos (1885-1973) the "initiative of courageous women and the advocated that women would gain voting clout of organized women's groups at the end rights sooner through universal suffrage and of the nineteenth century to claim...existing she saw danger in allying with bourgeois rights and push for the realization of others" women's efforts (Szapor 2004; Szegvári (2008, 35). Their battles and achievements 1981). While bourgeois and socialist feminists were noted among women and also some did not agree on every aspect of the progressive men within the country. In advancement of women's rights, they December 1896, a ministerial decree opened recognized that they were makers of a social, the university faculties of medicine and arts political and cultural turn in Hungary in a new for women at last (Szapor 2004). There were century, and they fought together for a close to 800 women's organizations in democratic society carving out loci for the Hungary by the late 1800s (Schwartz 2008, independent working woman. They also 21). While most of these early groups made emphasized that they wanted to maintain their no claims for political rights nor had any links differences from men as a basis from which to Western women's movements, and they to regenerate culture and society, while did not mobilize women on a larger scale, seeking equality with men on other levels. By
110 Atlantis 35.1, 2010 PR www.msvu.ca/atlantis linking equality and difference, Hungarian Versailles Treaty in 1920 resulted in the first-wave feminists had already expressed a establishment of a right-wing political regime, key notion that became the platform for the which promoted nationalist, anti-Semite and second-wave feminists in Western Europe chauvinist ideologies, turning the clock back and North America. on women's emancipation. It is interesting to In 1913, the bourgeois Feminist note, though, that as a result of the Association in Budapest hosted the international committees' pressure, Hungarian International Suffrage Alliance's 7th Congress women achieved the right to vote in 1920, which afforded Hungarian women's efforts a even if only for a short time (Szapor 2004). wider international recognition. At this time, With the escalating rise of conservative and the chief themes of women's groups, fascist forces, the Hungarian women's internationally and in Hungary, were public movement lost its avatars of bourgeois and health, workplace safety, prostitution, socialist feminists. The issue of women's illegitimacy, child welfare, the protection of rights did not become part of the political mothers and newborns, and the exploitation agenda again until after 1945. of domestic servants and also suicide (Szapor The peak of the Hungarian women's 2004). Middle- and upper-class Christian movement was between 1896 and 1914, a women's associations in Hungary shared period of intense social and cultural some of these grievances and fought for modernization (Szapor 2004). It had a close solutions affecting women. While they were affinity with W estern women's movements in driven by conservative ideals about women's its pluralistic and democratic goals and praxis. independence and suffrage, their charity The battle for women's access to higher organizations, especially during W orld W ar I, education, professions, and to end contributed effectively to relieving some of the discrimination against women at work took ailments women faced, such as gender, place not only in the different feminist sexual and class discrimination, oppression organizations but also in everyday life. As and marginalization. In the fall of 1918, a new Szapor explains, forward-looking women independent Hungary under the leadership of advocated a change in the "socially accepted Mihály Károlyi's liberal democratic image of the bourgeois woman not through government reinitiated the topic of (literate) politics but by way of their lifestyle, [for which] women's right to vote (Tóth 1975). A they found a nurturing environment in the communist political takeover that resulted in circle of the progressive intellectuals" (2004, the Republic of Councils in 1919 further 202). Next to Vienna, Budapest flourished as promoted women's participation in politics; a cultural hub attracting young artists, writers, hence, all women eighteen years and older poets from across the country who gathered were granted the vote as long as they were in cafés along the boulevards and in salons at members of the Workers Party. But when the home and lived a bohemian life. In such Republic was defeated their voting rights were intellectually and artistically conducive revoked and radical feminism in Hungary environments, women, primarily from the died.3 The bourgeois and socialist feminists middle- and upper-classes, "found the lost power in the women's movement, courage to make a living from their literary defeated by the ever-increasing influence of work" (Szapor 2004, 203). While women Christian women's groups which advocated involved in the feminist movement, such as, the ideal woman as a mother and wife and Rózsa Bédy-Schwimmer and Mariska declared women's emancipation immoral Gárdos, wrote in several journals such as the (Szegvári 1981). Indeed, their goals Munkásnõ [Working Woman], Nõ és a corresponded with the platform of the interwar Társadalom [Women and Society] and conservative government, led by Miklós Egyesült erõvel [With United Force], other Horthy. Hungary's loss in territory, population women became full-time journalists, poets and international political rights after the and novelists. One of the first female
www.msvu.ca/atlantis PR Atlantis 35.1, 2010 111 journalists was Anna Szederkényi who Modern W oman, with its moral, social, initiated a permanent column for feminist human, and vocational implications," thought in the Pesti Hirlap [Pest Newspaper] according to Czigány "was part of the social in 1910. The early feminist movement and progress by middle-class radicalism" (1984, women writers symbiotically influenced each 333). Janka Wohl (1846-1901) who founded other in Hungary. and edited such magazines as Divat [Fashion], Nõk Munkaköre [Women's Work] Women Authors and the Feminist and Magyar Bazár [Hungarian Bazaar] was Movement: An Organic Link one of the earliest feminist poets. Her works In Hungary the earliest advocates of also included advice books for women, such women's rights and emancipation were poets as A modern asszony breviáriuma [The and writers, and members of the educated Modern Woman's Breviary] in 1895 and the A nobility - both men and women - throughout nõi szépség fenntartásának, ápolásánk és the centuries (Szapor 2004). The roots of nüvelésének titkai. Irta egy nagyvilági hölgy early feminism and literature were intertwined [The Secrets of How to Achieve, Maintain and as part of organically embedded social, Improve Women's Beauty. Written by a political and cultural developments (Szapor Modern Woman] in 1885. Wohl was also the 2004, 192). One of the first concrete first woman to receive the prestigious Golden examples of such a link is Éva Takáts's 1823 Cross of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences article, entitled "Egy két szó..." ["A Few in 1897 for her literary work (Sárdi and Tóth Words..."], on marriage, women's education 1997). Janka, along with her sister Stefánia, and intellectual equality with men, which was, who was also a writer, ran a literary salon and not surprisingly, vehemently criticized by welcomed many women writers and also such patriarchal officials and literati (Acsády eminent guests as Franz Liszt. In her 1887 1999a). In comparison, during the same time novel Aranyfüst [Golden Smoke], Stefánia in Western Europe, women's literary works Wohl (1848-1889) depicts modernization were widely popularized, such as those by during the Dual Monarchy in Hungary and Jane Austen, Mary Godwin-Shelley and Mme women's position and role in the process. She De Staël. In fact and sadly, writings of these was attacked with such severe criticism, as European women were available only to those Schwartz explains, that she became few Hungarians who could read them in the "discouraged from further writing until shortly original; translations did not become available before her death" (2008, 32). Hungarian until the 1920s. But by the late 1800s, like feminist writing was not curtailed, however, their Austrian contemporaries, many and numerous women followed in the Hungarian feminists "conducted their activism footsteps of the Wohl sisters. not on the streets but through their As I have pointed out, most publications and speeches, as well as their Hungarian women authors came from the counseling services for women," for example, elite; they were from the privileged class, in legal, employment, and childcare facilities received good education, were able to travel (Schwartz 2008, 15). They stood against all and socialize which granted them a wider odds enduring ridicule, discrimination and perspective along with time to write. Countess oppression in an unsympathetic patriarchal Sarolta Vay (1859-1918) was one of these society by taking part in public life through upper-class female authors. She came from their writings and making their voices heard. an old noble family, studied at university, took The literary historian Loránt Czigány part in duels, wore men's outfits, and in fact suggests that in Hungary "it was a social wrote most of her works under male necessity that the appearance on the scene pseudonyms, such as D'Artagnan and Sándor of emancipated female creative writers should Vay (Fábri 1996, 169).4 She frequently coincide with the emergence of the feminist published in such reputed papers as movement" (1984, 333). The "concept of Vasárnapi Újság [Sunday Paper] and Új Idõk
112 Atlantis 35.1, 2010 PR www.msvu.ca/atlantis [New Times], and earned her living entirely editor József Kiss who frequently published from her writing. W hile often masculine in her works in his journal A Hét [The Week]. On tone and style, it is not clear whether Vay's the other hand, Minka Czóbel (1855-1947), work included manifestly lesbian lyricism. who came from an aristocratic family, was Schwartz argues that the bourgeois women's considered one of the most philosophical movement did not examine lesbian love and poets of her time. She was influenced by homosexuality, and "even in women's fiction, Catholicism and by existentialist philosophy, lesbian love [was] only rarely addressed" German and English Romanticism, and (2008 56). Gay and lesbian literature was not Buddhism. Like her contemporaries outside part of mainstream publications but a literary Hungary, the Austrian Ada Christen and the subculture likely existed while feminist voices Italian Ada Negri, Czóbel discussed social became ever more laudable. Also, until the issues in her essays, such as the plight of the beginning of the twentieth century feminist working class and the right of women to claim discourse rarely expressed sensuous love, an independent life. Emma Ritóok sexuality, or homosexuality. Nevertheless, (1868-1945) gained recognition on the leading feminists did criticize existing Hungarian literary scene with her 1897 essay marriage practices and social problems. "A természettudomámyi irány a One of the most ardent critics of szépirodalomban" ["The Natural Science society was Countess Sándorné Teleki, née Stream in Literature"] and popularity with her Juliska Kende (1864-1937) who also wrote 1905 award-winning novel Egyenes úton under the pen name, Szikra.5 In her first egyedül [Alone on a Straight Road]. Ritóok novel, A bevándorlók [The Immigrants] attended universities in France and Germany; (1898), Szikra spoke for the oppressed - a she was one of Georg Simmel's students in commitment she was devoted to throughout Berlin, and earned a doctorate in philology. her life. The sex trade, illiteracy, high divorce She also became a founding member of rates and the devastation of tuberculosis were Georg Lukács's Sunday Circle in Budapest. some of her main concerns. She agreed with However, she eventually turned away from many of her feminist contemporaries on the the metaphysical outlook of her point that women's education is above all an contemporaries and developed a feminist economic question and necessity. Szikra was critical standpoint as demonstrated in her also highly critical of the decadent lifestyle of 1921 novel, A szellem kalandorai [The the urban gentry and bourgeoisie, calling Adventurers of the Spirit]. Budapest "Sznobopolisz" (Fábri 1996, 171). By the end of the 19th century, She edited the feminist movement's journal, Hungarian women writers had established A Nõ [The Woman], and she was the themselves in the literary scene, at least to president of the International Suffrage the extent that their critics no longer Alliance's 7th Congress held in Budapest in expressed merely patronizing tones or treated 1913. Szikra's was one of the most well them as a novelty with a focus on their known literary salons in the capital with such appearance instead of their output. In the members as the woman writers Fruzina early 1900s, women writers' works Szalay, Minka Czóbel and Emma Ritóok. proliferated on the pages of the popular The Hungarian feminist scholar Anna journals, Új Idõk [New Times] and A Hét [The Fábri explains that Fruzina Szalay Week]. The well-regarded editor Ferenc (1864-1926), the daughter of a middle-class Herczeg, in his journal Új Idõk, published bourgeois family, disregarded the then close to two hundred pieces by women writers popular themes of love and nation and between 1894 and 1913 (Fábri 1996). instead expressed a Secessionist contrast Similarly, from its inception the most between nature and urban settings with an prominent Hungarian review of literature and underlying irony in her poems. Her unusual culture, Nyugat [West], also promoted women lyricism drew the attention of the respected writers, initially Margit Kaffka and Anna
www.msvu.ca/atlantis PR Atlantis 35.1, 2010 113 Lesznai.6 Margit Kaffka (1880-1918) came the same day, whose young and from a middle-class family in Transylvania. lyrical love-hating arsenal, at the She earned her teaching degree in Budapest misfortune of the woman, of course, and was among the first woman teachers states that "only men can idealize" achieving not only a reputation as a and are capable of true love. And that pedagogue but also as a prolific writer. She is "woman's love is more joyful (?), only best known for her prose; she produced eight because man's higher status volumes of short stories, one volume of fairy elevates her," and that "her tales, two volumes of children's stories and subordination and dependence is four novels while also publishing primarily in joy." The opposite of these Nyugat. Her 1912 novel, Szinek és évek lighthearted and chatty observations [Colours and Years], which depicts the could be proven just as well. Most transition from traditional feudal to bourgeois likely the author has not heard timid, society in the late 1800's Hungary through the pious wives talking about men reflections of the book's heroine, Magda "among themselves," in the intimacy Pórtelky, is considered the first feminist of sisterhood. modern novel in Hungary. It was with Kaffka ("Szász Zoltán: A szerelem," Nyugat that literary critics first recognized a Electronic)8 Hungarian female author as equal to the best of male authors; as Fábri points out, "it was in Kaffka's ironic tone pokes fun at both [Kaffka's] case that literary criticism first Szász's and W eininger's books, while cleverly dismissed the need to differentiate between making a demand for women's voices to be 'literary' and 'women's literary' works" (1996, heard. But it was particularly with her literary 186).7 Kaffka was well known for her fiercely works that Kaffka exposed women's manifest opinion about marriage practices struggles, contributing to the definition of a and she also spoke out against misogynistic "new type of woman" ["új tipusú n"] (Fábri texts. 1996, 185). In her 1913 "Az asszony ügye" By the early 1900s, in response to ["In Woman's Matters"] published in the feminist writers' efforts, a growing number of journal Világ [World], Kaffka paints the image misogynistic arguments surfaced in Hungary of a "higher female being whose life should with the aim of keeping "women in their move in the direction of 'professions, work, 'natural' place and role" (Schwartz 1999, 87). love, creation, battle, action, and When the Hungarian translation of Otto learning'...not merely into how to please a Weininger's 1903 book Geschlecht und man," while also stressing that a woman Charakter [Sex and Character] was published should "try to get closer to herself" (Schwartz in 1913, many feminists fought outspokenly 1999, 84). Kaffka believed in a "new type of against it and other misogynistic texts. Margit woman," not simply as an ideal but as a flesh Kaffka was one of the writers who openly and blood reality, which she herself embodied condemned W eininger's text, comparing it with all the struggles and joys that a woman's with the Hungarian author, Zoltán Szász's role as lover, wife and mother brings. Her misogynist book, A szerelem [Love], in a 1913 concepts about women's roles, rights and article in Nyugat: prospects, depicted in her texts, were fundamental for the development of From [Szász's] stance, some subsequent feminist discourses in Hungary. statements are problematically daring Before her sudden death in 1918, Kaffka and funny for a woman reader. Since wrote two more novels, Hangyaboly a woman's sense and ability of [Ant-heap] (1916) and Állomások [Stations] judgment is smaller, in love she (1917), and several novellas such as Mária "idealizes more." It is a funny thing to évei [Years of Maria] (1912), "Lirai jegyzetek read Weininger's similar passage on egy évr l" ["Lyrical Notes about a Year"]
114 Atlantis 35.1, 2010 PR www.msvu.ca/atlantis (1915), and "Két nyár" ["Two Summers"] the suffrage campaign'" (2008, 57). At the (1916), which all promoted feminist same time, other critics of misogyny, perspectives. Kaffka is one of a handful of misandry and views of feminism also gained canonized female Hungarian authors from the force. twentieth century. Anna Lesznai (1885-1966) shared Another strong voice of misandry - a many of her feminist friends' ideas. Lesznai hatred of men - was that of the was born into an old, ennobled, provincial Jewish-Hungarian Renée Erdõs (1879-1956). Jewish family, hence themes of the land Erdõs achieved success with her novel, along with nature and folk traditions were Leányálmok [Girl's Dreams] in 1899. Her ingrained in her writings, illustrations and prose and lyricism articulated rarely embroideries. As Fábri notes, contrary to expressed female eroticism, employing many of her female contemporaries' beliefs, unusual, sensuous and grave words to speak Lesznai claimed that love was the only and about relationships between men and women true grounding force in women's lives (1996, (Fábri 1996). She engaged the topic of male 187). The Nyugat editors, Osvát and Ady, hatred most critically in her 1922 novel A nagy recognized Lesznai's lyricism early on and sikoly [The Big Scream]. Her focus on published her works frequently in the journal, feminism and women's eroticism was also a mostly in the form of poems and cover critique of patriarchal morality. She joined the illustrations. She was part of fin-de-siècle women who openly engaged in debates about Hungarian intellectual circles, having married femininity and masculinity in their articles and the well-known sociologist Oszkár Jászi. Her fiction, and also projected their own ideas and main talent, however, was writing children's desires onto men, while reflecting on the stories. She published five books, and her female condition (Schwartz 2008). most popular novel just before her death in Psychoanalytical concepts about sexuality, 1966, entitled Kezdetben volt a kert [In the the subconscious, sex drives, women's Beginning was the Garden], was based on "frigidity" and the "fallen woman" had become her own experiences as a woman writer and quickly acknowledged and disputed. Erdõs artist. It was Kaffka who introduced Lesznai's was an avid supporter of Sigmund Freud's first volume of poems in her 1909 Nyugat concepts. Interest in her work grew quickly, review, and the two women became friends earning her large honoraria from the journals and collaborated on articles. Indeed, between in which she published. Freud's discoveries 1909 and 1941, Nyugat published numerous had a potent impact on male and female women authors' works, including prominent writers alike, and in Hungary his ideas young talents, such as Zseni Várnai became popularized through his student (1890-1981) and Sarolta Lányi (1891-1975). Sándor Ferenczi. Even before Freud, Both Várnai and Lányi actively took part in the Ferenczi recognized the influence of social early working-class movement in Hungary, agents and conditioning, that is, education and became best known for their feminist and upbringing, on women's sexuality, and he communist lyric poetry. advocated women's right to sexual pleasure Following World War One and the in and outside marriage. However, many defeated democratic and communist feminists criticized the "Freudian concepts revolutions in Hungary, women writers tended and sexual practices based on the moral to turn to more traditional ideals and double standard and the marriage of promoted conservative cultural models, losing convenience" (Schwartz 2008, 56). As such avatars as Kaffka who died in 1918, Schwartz points out, "Hungarian feminists had Lesznai, who immigrated to America, and an additional reason for caution when it came Lányi who moved to the Soviet Union with her to attacking attitudes with respect to sexuality husband in 1922. It was in such a post-war and marriage, namely 'fear that sexual revisionist historical context that the ultra radicalism would undermine the success of conservative female author, Cécile Tormay's
www.msvu.ca/atlantis PR Atlantis 35.1, 2010 115 (1875-1937) 1922 Bujdosó könyv [An writing from and against their subjugated Outlaw's Diary] became the most popular text position. They had the thorny double task of as a form of regression to conventional both subverting their oppressive situation and beliefs.9 Her novels, including the 1914 A régi conforming to it in order to stay alive. ház [The Old House], were translated into Importantly, several women writers, among several languages, and she was also them Szikra, Renée Erdõs, Margit Kaffka and nominated for the 1937 Nobel Prize for Cécile Tormay "enjoyed considerable fame Literature, but her untimely death prevented and respect, not only from readers but also her from receiving it. In 1922 she became from critics and fellow writers, both female editor-in-chief of the Napkelet [Dawn] journal, and male" (Schwartz 2008, 4). Between 1931 which was founded to counter the progressive and 1943, a growing number of texts about views of Nyugat. While Napkelet promoted woman authors appeared, among them conservative political values, it also published Margit Bozzay's 1931 book Magyar approximately three hundred articles by over asszonyok lexikona [Hungarian Women's one hundred women authors between 1922 Lexicon], and Sophie Török's essay of "Nõk and 1937. During the same period, Nyugat az irodalomban" ["Women in Literature"] in published only about sixty women authors' Nyugat in 1932. Hungarian feminists' and works, many of those by the lovers or wives of women writers' battles and achievements the journal's writers, such as Sophie Török, contributed to Hungarian modernist culture Piroska Reinhard, Szefi Bohuniczky, Mária and literature and advanced democratic Kovács, Kosáryné Lola Réz and Erzsébet progress despite all odds in the tumultuous Kádár (Fábri 1996). However, it would be historical context of the region. Lastly, I misleading to imagine that women writers respond to my questions about the nature of enjoyed an overall parity and equality with Hungarian women's writing by adopting male writers at any of the journals or Jacobus's (1986) suggestion to recognize that publishers. Many (male) critics of the various there is no innocent attempt to mark female papers drew on chauvinist stereotypes, differences in the text because it also leads to accentuating women's fragility and inscribing women as fiction. In other words, emotionality, or they simply denied the women wrote what men were unwilling or existence of their intellect. Nevertheless, it is unable to write and in so doing they recreated important to emphasize that many women themselves through fiction with a desire for a writers in Hungary during the early part of the better and egalitarian reality. By illuminating twentieth century had produced a relatively how Hungarian feminism and women authors large volume of works and had gained an were interlinked at the end of the nineteenth audience, and in turn played a role in and beginning of the twentieth centuries I advancing feminist discourses. hope I have been able to contribute to both women's writing and writing about women as Conclusion "rewriting of these fictions" (Jacobus 1986, As I have demonstrated in this article, 40). What the next step in uncovering Hungarian women in the late nineteenth and Hungarian women's contribution to society early twentieth centuries fought for suffrage and literature ought to be is the study of and emancipation on the streets and in their women artists from various class and ethnic writings, similar to their contemporaries backgrounds and sexual orientations. across Europe and America. Inspired by feminist movements, women authors gained Endnotes attention and appreciation on the literary 1. For additional scholarly sources about scene, and most of all, they spoke on behalf Hungarian feminism in English see, for of millions of women in Hungary. Their works example, Ablovatski, E. "Between Red Army were often marked by anxiety about the self, and White Guard" (2006); Kovacs, M. gender, sexuality and even authorship while "Ambiguities of Emancipation" (1996); Petõ,
116 Atlantis 35.1, 2010 PR www.msvu.ca/atlantis A. and J. Szapor, "The State of Women's and igazán" és képes igazi szerelemre. Hogy: "A Gender History in Eastern Europe: The Case nõ szerelme boldogabb (?), mert a férfi of Hungary" (2007); Zimmermann, S. "How magasabbrendûsége révén õ a szerelemben They Became Feminists: The Origins of the emberi emelkedéshez jut" - és hogy: "Az Women's Movement in Central Europe at the alárendeltség és függés öröm a nõnek" - Turn of the Century" (1997-98); Zsuppán, F.T. csupa könnyû fajsúlyú, causeur-i "The Reception of the Hungarian Feminist megállapítás -, melyek ellenkezõje éppúgy Movement 1904-14" (1989). bizonygatható volna. A szerzõ nyilván nem 2. Pálné Veres (née Hermin Beniczky) (1815- hallott még szelíd, megadó feleségeket 1895) discussed the first all-girls' secondary "maguk közt" férfiakról beszélni - nõtestvéri school in Hungary in an article in the journal A intimitásban például. Hon [The Homeland] in 1865, which is 9. The adjective "conservative" is insufficient considered the beginning of the Hungarian for describing the right-wing views of Tormay, feminist movement. In May 1868, Mrs. Veres one of the leading lights and early proponents with a handful of other women founded the of Hungarian racist ideology that emerged Országos Nõképzõ Egyesület [National around 1918. Tormay's notoriously anti- Women’s Education Association] with the aim Semitic book (An Outlaw's Diary) and her of elevating women's basic education and political activities were largely responsible for opportunities for higher education. the post-war period's adoption of racist 3. The Republic of Councils was the first discourse and various clauses and laws communist government in Hungary from restricting access to higher education for March to August 1919, inspired by the Jewish students. Bolshevik Revolution. 4. Publishing under pseudonyms seemed to References be an accepted practice. Ablovatski, E. "Between Red Army and White 5. The Hungarian word "szikra" means spark. Guard," N. Wingfield and M. Bucur, eds. 6. Nyugat was the most prominent review in Gender and War in the Twentieth Century. Hungary between 1908 and 1941. Its editors, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006, Ernõ Osvát, Miksa Fenyõ, Oszkár Gellért, pp. 70-89. Count Lajos Hatvany, Endre Ady and later Zsigmond Móricz and Mihály Babits brought Acsády, J. "Remarks on the History of a new vision and discourse to Hungarian Hungarian Feminism," Hungarian Studies literature, culture and society that today is Review 26.1-2 (1999a): 59-64. known as the era of high modernism in Hungary. _____. "A magyarországi feminizmus a 7. Az õ esetében tette félre elõször a kritika századelõn" ["Hungarian Feminism at the az 'irodalmi' és nõirdalmi' kettõs mércét. (All Turn of the Century"]. Politika, gazdaság és translations from Hungarian to English are by társadalom a XX. századi magyar the author of this article). történelemben [Politics, economy and society 8. Ebbõl a megkötöttségbõl néhány furcsa - in 20th century Hungarian history], L. Püski, L. asszonyolvasó szemében problematikusan Timár and T. Valuch, eds. Debrecen: KLTE merész és mosolyogtató - kijelentése Történelmi Intézet, 1999b, pp. 295-11. származik. Hogy - mert a nõ bíráló érzéke és tapasztalata kisebb - azért "jobban Czigány, L. The Oxford History of Hungarian eszményít" a szerelemben - mulatságos Literature: From the Earliest Times to the dolog véletlenül ugyanazon a napon olvasni Present. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984. Weininger megfelelõ passzusával, kinek fiatalos, szinte szerelmesen lírai gyûlölete Fábri, A. "A szép tiltott táj felé": A Magyar arzenáljában szerepel, természetesen a nõ irónõk története a két századforduló között rovására, hogy "csak a férfi eszményíthet (1795-1905) ["To the Beautiful and Forbidden
www.msvu.ca/atlantis PR Atlantis 35.1, 2010 117 Land": The History of Hungarian Women Zimmermann, S. "How They Became Writers Between the Turn of Two Centuries Feminists: The Origins of the W omen's (1795-1905)]. Budapest: Kortárs, 1996. Movement in Central Europe at the Turn of the Century," CEU History Department Jacobus, M. Reading Women: Essay in Yearbook, 1997-98, pp. 195-236. Feminist Criticism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. Zsuppán, F. T. "The Reception of the Hungarian Feminist Movement 1904-14," R. Kaffka, M. "Szász Zoltán: A Szerelem," Pynsent, ed. Decadence and Innovation: Nyugat 6.15 (July 1913). Nyugat Electronic Austro-Hungarian Life and Art at the Turn of Database.the Century. London: Weidenfeld and http://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00022/nyugat.htm Nicolson, 1989, pp. 61-65.
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Petõ, A., and J. Szapor. "The State of Women's and Gender History in Eastern Europe: The Case of Hungary," Journal of Women's History 19.1 (2007): 160-66.
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_____. Shifting Voices: Feminist Thought and Women's Writing in Fin-de Siècle Austria and Hungary. Montreal & Kingston: McGill University Press, 2008.
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Tóth, M [Bné]. A magyar nõk jogainak fejlõdése [The Development of Hungarian Women's Rights]. Budapest: Táncsics, 1975.
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