Bibliographia [antikvár]

BIBLIOGRAPHIAAmerican Studies in Hungary: A SurveyWhen surveying the state of American Studies in Hungary, we must examine the achievements and the debts of this discipline in the light of Professor László Or-szágh's statement of 1965, that "We have to start virtually from scratch and there-fore have to plan with the greatest care if we want to give American Studies in Hungary a secure foundation that will meet the high scholarly objectives." The sentence is from his Programme for American Studies in Hungary,1 which, in retrospect, seems to have been a milestone in the rather short history of the discipline in this country. The Programme set down the future aims and tasks of the just nascent American studies, as there had been no previous systematic work carried out in this field in Hungary. L. Országh mapped out the situation in a social and historical perspective, and in his objective description of the state of American studies, he pointed out the initiatives which resulted in a growing interest in studies on American culture: two-term lecture courses and compulsor examinations in this subject at the University Departments of English Language and Literature, two American Readers published in Hungary (functioning as university handbooks), several scholarly papers on diverse aspects of American culture in learned journals, as well as publications intended for the generál reading public (a volume of essays by scholars and critics on the major 20th Century American writers, an increasing number of Hungárián translations of American short stories, novels, dramas, etc.). The seemingly modest list of desiderata in which L. Országhsummed up the most urgent tasks included no more than five items.1."A Hungarian publication of some length possibly two or three volumes carefully compiled and with a wealth of facts based on the extensivo relevant source materials";2.a systematic, autochtonous account of the development of American literature;3.numerous studies by specialists on particular periods, trends, and their major exponents in American literature;4.the study of the mutual relations of the two cultures; and,5."Before anything else, and the sooner the better, an American chair or at least professorship would have to be established at one of our Universities".The present paper is a survey of the results that have been produced during the fourteen years since the publication of the Programme, a summary of what has been fulfilled of the tasks L. Országh outlined theie.Professor Országh contributed two major works in this field, Az amerikai irodalom története (A History of American Literature), 1967, Gondolat, and Bevezetés az amerikanisztikába (Introduction to American Studies), 1972, Tankönyvkiadó. The former presented the first attempt at a concise literary history of the US in one single volume. Besides providing a historical study of all the literary forms, the book also examined the cultural, historical and social aspects of American civiliza-tion. It achieved a happy balance of being both comprehensivo and full of valuable insight into its subject. It is no wonder,1 "Az amerikanisztika feladatai Magyarországon", In: Angol Filológiai Tanulmányok Hungárián Studies in English, 1965: II, pp. 121-126, and "A Programme for American Studies in Hungary", in: New Hungárián Quarterly, 1066: VII/23, pp. 163-167. - For an earlier survey cf. József Szili: "Az angol és az amerikai irodalom hazai kutatásának 25 éve" ("Twenty-five Years of Hungnrian Studies in English and American Literature"), in: Filológiai Közlöny, 1970: XVI 3-4, pp. 292-298.12Acta Litleraria Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 20,1978