Poetry in minority

On the poems of Károly Jung, Magdolna Danyi, and Pál Böndör

Abstract

The paper analyses the poems of vojvodinian poets of the second and third generation of Új Symposion, Károly Jung, Magdolna Danyi, and Pál Böndör, and highlights the unique aspects of poetry created in a minor situation. Károly Jung’s notion of barbaricum, Magdolna Danyi’s reflections on the South Slavic wars and addressing Ágnes Nemes Nagy, and poems in Pál Böndör’s last volume, Vásárlási lázgörbe [Shopping Fever Curve], prove that the poetic interpretation re-evaluates the initial referential meaning: in poems written in a minority situation references to the circumstances and the social context are always intertwined with cultural codes. According to the author of this paper, an unavoidable challenge of describing poetry written in a minority context is the lack of a single mainstream in Hungarian poetry following the Treaty of Trianon as it was created simultaneously in several centres.