Contemporary Hungarian Literature

Course requirements: intensive interaction and participation during lectures; thorough familiarisation with the thematic literature prescribed for the semester; undertaking individual reports and the presentation of these reports in concise oral format - with special attention to the Hungarian parallels and other notable aspects of the given topic.
Method of evaluation of coursework: oral examination
Marking method: in proportion to class work and the quality of the individual reports.
Exam requirements: there are no special exam requirements
Teaching methods: interactive group work, laying theoretical foundations, continuous checking of the students knowledge of the material; consultation towards the preparation of individual reports.
Recommended study methods: depends on the person and the task, especially in the case of the individual reports.
Role of the course within the specialist training scheme: widening cultural-intellectual horizons with the help of contemporary literature as cognate art; becoming more deeply imbedded in national culture with a view of parallels in world literature; becoming more thoroughly familiarised with the problematics of text.
Course description, major areas of study:
Semester 1: the ideal of New Moon and of Response; the inner contents, immanent problems and intellectual expansion of literary programs. Ágnes Nemes Nagy, Sándor Weöres, János Pilinszky, Géza Ottlik, Iván Mándy, Milkós Mészöly, Péter Nádas, László Krasznahorkai, Gyula Illyés, László Nagy, Imre Sarkadi, Tibor Cseres, Sándor Csoóri, Gáspár Nagy, István Baka ? literary principles.
Semester 2: new, authentic initiatives in contemporary Hungarian literature. We analyse works by Dezső Tandori, György Petri, Imre Oravecz, László Marsall, Péter Esterházy, Péter Hajnóczy, György Spíró, Lajos Parti Nagy, Tibor Zalán, János Marno.
The increasing influence and presence in Hungary?s intellectual sphere of works by Hungarian authors living outside the borders of the country are continuously explored during both semesters. Kányádi Sándor, Tibor Bálint, Domokos Szilágyi, István Szilágyi, Zsófia Balla, Péter Egyed, Géza Szőcs, Árpád Tőzsér, Lajos Grendel, Ottó Tolnai, János Sziveri and their contemporaries are obvious shapers of Hungarian intellectual life.
We must also make note of the lot of literary institutions (publishing houses, periodicals, movements, organisations) as well as the genres appearing on the borderlines of literature: sociography and literary report.
As the exploration of all these topics exceed the capacity of a two-semester course, this course description is to be regarded as a wide-range guide; with the exception of foundation work, the thematic of the given course may vary.
Textbooks: For the most part, I chose the literary works to be covered off the Internet database of the Hungarian Electronic Library (Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár or MEK). In other cases I only require the acquisition of easily found publications, in other words there are no special readings.