WORLD LITERATURE IN HUNGARIAN TRANSLATION ANTHOLOGIES IN SLOVAKIA

Abstract

The study draws on minor literature theory and cultural theory of literary translation. As a case study, it analyses Olivér Rácz’s Csillagsugárzás (1978), an anthology of translations from world literature into Hungarian in Slovakia, and also compares it with the volumes by László Cselényi (1986) and Árpád Tőzsér (2002). In Hungarian literature, the anthologies compiled during the modernist period can be attributed mainly to the oeuvre of the poets who grouped around the literary journal Nyugat, and like the journal, these anthologies are linked to Western literature, complemented by the canon of classical antique literature. This initial tendency changed radically, especially after the Second World War, when the ruling ideology expected the literature of the socialist bloc to be represented. The collection of poems under analysis draws on this tradition but also seeks to incorporate Slovak and Czech literature into the world literary canon, given its minority position, while also making use of ideological and manipulative gestures.