CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
| Author | Horst, Rachel |
|---|---|
| Title | Articulating the Nation:National Identity Discourse in Hungary in the 1970s and 1980s |
| Summary | This thesis examines textual sources from the period of the 1970s and 1980s in Hungary in order to identify and analyze a national identity meta-discourse. Through textual analysis of writings by Hungarian intellectuals, primarily in the social sciences and literary community, it seeks to synthesize the contributions to a societal conversation on Hungarian identity in their contemporary environment. The findings reveal a complex but nevertheless inter-related societal exchange based on the reemergence of a Hungarian society autonomous from the socialist party-state as well as from the degenerating effects of its totalitarian past. This regeneration takes shape from the ground up in the writings from this period, both as a reflection of and as a catalyst of the political, social, economic and cultural developments of the period. Based on the sources analyzed here, structured temporally and thematically, the discourse on national identity in Hungary assumes a coherent shape. The analysis of the details of the discourse is based on the retrospective views towards the previous century searching for continuities, precedents, and transformations in the time between them; the contemporary discourse on “society” concerning the Hungary’s place as a member of the Central European region as well in its own historical experience, drawing on themes from the discourse on the nineteenth century; and the meeting of the past and present of national identity in the single issue of Hungarian national minorities abroad. It reveals that the efforts of intellectuals to fulfill the role of national identity articulators did so actively and through the medium of society and its development, even in an era of still limited freedoms. |
| Supervisor | Trencsenyi, Balazs, Kontler, Laszlo |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/horst_rachel.pdf |
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