HUNGARIAN STUDIES 11. No. 1. Nemzetközi Magyar ... - EPA
HUNGARIAN STUDIES 11. No. 1. Nemzetközi Magyar ... - EPA HUNGARIAN STUDIES 11. No. 1. Nemzetközi Magyar ... - EPA
36 ZSUZSANNA OZSVÁTHStill, however significant, however threatening, however ominous, theGerman political developments of 1933 appear to our post-Holocaust understandingand however menacing they must have appeared to Radnóti at thattime, they could hardly have brought about instant changes in the poet's psychicperceptions and his poetic imagination. Those events alone could not havesimply caused jolts powerful enough to bring about the sudden crystallizing ofRadnóti's image of Holocaustal violence and the channelling of his creativeenergies into an iconography of disaster. Usually, change needs more sustainedtime to evolve or more direct pressures to well up suddenly. As it usuallyhappens, things turn slow at their center of gravity. Since the shifts in theGerman political power structure were still quite remote from the Hungariantheatre in 1933, they alone could not have made instantaneously a deep, andemotionally-stressed impact on Radnóti. This could only then have happened,according to the Freudian notions about the nature of trauma, had he alreadysuffered one of a similar nature, which, while festering, interconnected with andwas, in turn, reinforced and magnified by the political events taking place inGermany. Only then could the wrenching changes in Radnóti's poetic andpsychic landscape have taken place that manifest themselves in the "bull poem."Only then could those eminous events of 1933 be recognized for what they wereon the darkening horizon. But what kind of a trauma are we here talking about?What kind of an injury did he suffer? What blow did he conceal?Looking around, we must note that the answer to these questions lies quitenear at hand. Indeed, if we examine the history of every-day life in theHungarian universities of the interwar period, we must note the ubiquity of aset of recurring violent scenes, launched to chase the Jews out from theinstitutes of higher learning: to make these places judenrein. 16 Flaring up in thefall of 1930, just when Radnóti arrived in Szeged, at the country's campuses,among them at the Ferenc József University, such riots demonstrated both therise of the right's political power and the unwillingness of the government todeal with the problem promptly and effectively. What took place on theseoccasions involved a group of eight to ten people (sometimes as many astwenty or twenty-five), calling for the removal of the Jews from the lecturehalls, academic gatherings, or the corridors of the campus. Usually, the riotersthumped and screamed anti-Semitic slogans, throwing stink bombs in themidst of the crowd. Other times, they just grabbed one person whom theyidentified as a Jew and beat him up cruelly, leaving him on the ground, hisbones broken, bleeding. Often, the mob did not go inside, but waited for theirvictims to enter or to leave the premises. The Jewish students were attackedthen at the door or at the gates. There can be no doubts, Radnóti had anintimate knowledge of and must have been deeply perturbed by these riots,
FROM CAIN TO NAHUM 37which, as Csaplár explains, and the Jewish newspapers of the day demonstrate,were from the fall of 1930 part of the quotidian routine. 17But one could ask, why would these beatings have made such an enormousimpression on Radnóti? Why would they have penetrated his psychic perceptionsand his poetic imagination? Why would they have been that traumatic?After all, as we know, he considered his Jewish background hardly essentialfor his identity as a Hungarian poet. In fact, it was the image of the latter heembraced and idealized. Why should he have identified himself with thevictims of these riots, when he found no particular reason to identify himselfwith them before or after the beatings?To be sure, he did not identify with them. But by the early thirties, Radnótimust have understood that no matter how he defined himself, in the eyes ofthe bullies he was nothing but a Jew. However degrading this understandingappeared to him, he could hardly have escaped knowing the threat it implied.Ignoring the problem does not mean he did not know what went on, ratherthat he could not deal with the pressure.As a matter of fact, the mark of the Jew insulted him and undermined hisdignity as a human being; his exclusion from the community of the Magyarsdenied him the place among the Hungarian poets he so ardently desired. Smallwonder that at first neither the scenes of beatings, the victim of which he could,of course, easily have become at any given minute, nor the terror of exile fromall he valued, appeared as themes in his poetry. 18 He rather turned to idealsand goals he found more dignified to appropriate, some through which hedefined himself, some of which he shared with many of his closest friends andcomrades. In this way, he became part of a passionately patriotic, universallysacralized struggle against the country's backwardness: the struggle for theeconomic, social, and cultural rise of the Hungarian countryside.As soon as he arrived in Szeged and enrolled at the university, he became amember of the Gábor Bethlen Circle, a club that committed itself to the populistcause. Exploring the lives and culture of the hamlets, homesteads, and villagesaround the city, the members of the Circle dedicated themselves to the idea ofsocial justice: to the goal of changing the lives of the down-trodden, povertystrickenpeasants, achieving thereby a moral transformation of Hungariansociety. This dedication did not involve social work alone. It absorbed Radnóti'sintellectual and psychic energies as well: it suffused his ars poetica and inspiredhis poetic imagination. Small wonder that many of his lyrics composed in thefirst three years of his sojourn in Szeged carry populist themes and socialisttopics.But "Like a Bull" reveals an experience that differs from that manifested inthe rest of Radnóti 's work after his arrival in Szeged. Breaking to the surface
- Page 1 and 2: Papers of the Radnóti Memorial Con
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- Page 8 and 9: 6 GEORGE GÖMÖRIprobably Fürst an
- Page 10 and 11: 8 GEORGE GÖMÖRIof the utmost impo
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- Page 14 and 15: 12 GEORGE GÖMÖRINotes1. Miklós R
- Page 16 and 17: 14 MIHÁLY SZEGEDY-MASZÁKself alwa
- Page 18 and 19: 16 MIHÁLY SZEGEDY-MASZÁKtype is r
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- Page 22 and 23: 20 MIHÁLY SZEGEDY-MASZÁK"Wozu Dic
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- Page 28 and 29: 26 MIHÁLY SZEGEDY-MASZÁKBolond, k
- Page 30 and 31: 28 MIHÁLY SZEGEDY-MASZÁK6. Emery
- Page 32 and 33: 30 ZSUZSANNA OZSVÁTHand breaks as
- Page 34 and 35: 32 ZSUZSANNA OZSVÁTHThe drama echo
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- Page 41 and 42: \FROM CAIN TO NAHUM 39and bears and
- Page 43 and 44: FROM CAIN TO NAHUM 41who sees what
- Page 45 and 46: FROM CAIN TO NAHUM 438. "A félelme
- Page 47 and 48: HELP ME, PASTORAL MUSE:THE VIRGELIA
- Page 49 and 50: HELP ME, PASTORAL MUSE 47compete! W
- Page 51 and 52: HELP ME, PASTORAL MUSE 49of a priva
- Page 53 and 54: HELP ME, PASTORAL MUSE 51Once again
- Page 55 and 56: HELP ME, PASTORAL MUSE 53Eighth Ecl
- Page 57 and 58: HELP ME, PASTORAL MUSE 55have that
- Page 59: HELP ME, PASTORAL MUSE 57Paul de Ma
- Page 62 and 63: 60 SAMUEL J. WILSONWe did, however,
- Page 64 and 65: 62 SAMUEL J. WILSONbeings and contr
- Page 66 and 67: 64 SAMUEL J. WILSONHungarians would
- Page 68 and 69: 66 SAMUEL J. WILSONthe Austrians. G
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- Page 72 and 73: 70 SAMUEL J. WILSONoriginally pursu
- Page 74 and 75: 72 SAMUEL J. WILSONGörgey's decisi
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- Page 78 and 79: 76 SAMUEL J. WILSON8. Artúr Görge
- Page 80 and 81: 78 STEVEN TÖTÖSY de ZEPETNEKtört
- Page 82 and 83: 80 STEVEN TÖTÖSY de ZEPETNEKThe c
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FROM CAIN TO NAHUM 37which, as Csaplár explains, and the Jewish newspapers of the day demonstrate,were from the fall of 1930 part of the quotidian routine. 17But one could ask, why would these beatings have made such an enormousimpression on Radnóti? Why would they have penetrated his psychic perceptionsand his poetic imagination? Why would they have been that traumatic?After all, as we know, he considered his Jewish background hardly essentialfor his identity as a Hungarian poet. In fact, it was the image of the latter heembraced and idealized. Why should he have identified himself with thevictims of these riots, when he found no particular reason to identify himselfwith them before or after the beatings?To be sure, he did not identify with them. But by the early thirties, Radnótimust have understood that no matter how he defined himself, in the eyes ofthe bullies he was nothing but a Jew. However degrading this understandingappeared to him, he could hardly have escaped knowing the threat it implied.Ignoring the problem does not mean he did not know what went on, ratherthat he could not deal with the pressure.As a matter of fact, the mark of the Jew insulted him and undermined hisdignity as a human being; his exclusion from the community of the <strong>Magyar</strong>sdenied him the place among the Hungarian poets he so ardently desired. Smallwonder that at first neither the scenes of beatings, the victim of which he could,of course, easily have become at any given minute, nor the terror of exile fromall he valued, appeared as themes in his poetry. 18 He rather turned to idealsand goals he found more dignified to appropriate, some through which hedefined himself, some of which he shared with many of his closest friends andcomrades. In this way, he became part of a passionately patriotic, universallysacralized struggle against the country's backwardness: the struggle for theeconomic, social, and cultural rise of the Hungarian countryside.As soon as he arrived in Szeged and enrolled at the university, he became amember of the Gábor Bethlen Circle, a club that committed itself to the populistcause. Exploring the lives and culture of the hamlets, homesteads, and villagesaround the city, the members of the Circle dedicated themselves to the idea ofsocial justice: to the goal of changing the lives of the down-trodden, povertystrickenpeasants, achieving thereby a moral transformation of Hungariansociety. This dedication did not involve social work alone. It absorbed Radnóti'sintellectual and psychic energies as well: it suffused his ars poetica and inspiredhis poetic imagination. Small wonder that many of his lyrics composed in thefirst three years of his sojourn in Szeged carry populist themes and socialisttopics.But "Like a Bull" reveals an experience that differs from that manifested inthe rest of Radnóti 's work after his arrival in Szeged. Breaking to the surface
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