CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Stráner, Katalin |
|---|---|
| Title | Science, Translation and the Public: The Hungarian Reception of Darwinism, 1858-1875 |
| Summary | This study draws attention to the role of translation in the early reception of Darwinism in Hungary. Understanding translation as a form of cultural encounter, it examines the reception of Darwinism in the context of the transforming public sphere from the early reception of evolutionary ideas in the 1850s until the publication of the Hungarian translation of Origin of Species in 1873. The involvement of the scientific community in informing and educating the public about the latest developments in the natural sciences is shown to be part of a patriotic agenda. By the late 1860s, the translation and adaptation of foreign scientific works became part of an emerging discourse of national progress fostered by the liberal political atmosphere following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. When József Somody’s translation of Vestiges of Creation was published in 1858, Hungarian scientific life was held back by the practical consequences of political repression. Jácint Rónay’s attempts to transfer the latest developments in the natural sciences from London to Pest in the early 1860s were not only hindered by circumstances and distance, but the attention of the public and the scientific community alike was too much caught up in the events leading up to the Compromise and the institutional reorganization of scientific life. By the early 1870s, however, members of the Academy and the scientific societies were finally in a position to capitalize on the critical point when the consequences of the Compromise permitted a new, open engagement with the natural sciences and their social and political implications. As Darwinism gradually entered not only scientific but also public discourse, the Darwinian concepts of progress and development became part of the rhetorical apparatus of social and political reform agendas in late nineteenth century Hungary. |
| Supervisor | Hall, Karl |
| Department | History PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/straner_katalin.pdf |
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