Washington, DC – The “Hungarian Review”, the English-language affiliate of the bi-monthly journal Magyar Szemle, edited by Gyula Kodolányi and John O’Sullivan, has published its second issue for 2021.
This issue contains many articles that reflect on the situation of ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries.
On the cover: Bird’s eye view of the Szent Tamás vineyard.
Images by Gábor Tóth, photographer of the film Stocks of Love.
In the second part of her article entitled “Redefining the Concept of the Hungarian Nation”, Edith Oltay places Hungary’s kin-state policy in the current discourses on the concepts of nation, nationalism and ethnic identity, and she writes: “Studies and opinion polls show that Hungarians increasingly see ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries as part of the Hungarian nation, and most of them approve of them granting dual citizenship. However, the question of who belongs to the Hungarian nation continues to divide the political camps. Frequent clashes between the government and the opposition over conflicting national concepts expose the Hungarian population to rival national discourses. Consensus over kin-state policy is, however, urgently needed to ensure that the institutional structure put in place outlives possible changes of government.”
In his essay entitled “University Teaching in Hungarian at the Novi Sad Faculty of Law – A Retrospective after Fifty Years”, Tibor Várady tells the story and the significance of what launching concurrent instruction in Hungarian at the Novi Sad Faculty of Law meant to him and many others, and concludes by saying: ”Today there is no teaching in Hungarian of any kind, nor a department of Hungarian terminology (or of any other minority of language of that matter) at the Law School of Novi Sad. Ibsen once claimed that ‘the minority is always right’. This need not always be the case. But even if it is a fact that the minority is right, this does not itself yield an entitlement. It simply serves as a starting point for endeavors. This applies to the Hungarian minority in Vojvodina, as it does to Serbians, and all other minorities living in Hungary. As contexts shift, we must never cease from making an effort to rediscover opportunities.”
The ‘Current’ section contains two articles by János Martonyi (“The Schuman Declaration: Seventy Years Ago and Today”) and Ray Kinsella (“Hungary and Ireland – Divergent Paths and the Sustainability of Representative Democracy in the EU”).
Next, the ‘Essays’ section has articles by Nicholas T. Parsons (“Austrians and Hungarians: Enemies, Neighbours, Friends”); “David A. Reynolds (“Within the Grace of Meaning – An Essay on Recent Hungarian History”); Tibor Várady (“University Teaching in Hungarian at the Novi Sad Faculty of Law – A Retrospective after Fifty Years”); Edith Oltay (“Redefining the Concept of the Hungarian Nation – Part II”); Jock Stein (“A Nation Dismembered – Book Review”); and two poems by Jock Stein.
The ‘Essays’ section is followed by the ‘Arts and Letters’ section which includes articles by Szilárd Biernaczky (“László Magyar – Untold Stories of a Hungarian Explorer Born Two Hundred Years Ago – Part II”); The Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg – Ferenc Miszlivetz and Jody Jensen in interview with Mátyás Kohán; and Hedvig Tallián (“Stocks of Love – A Portrait of István Szepsy”).
Finally, the periodical contains a new section entitled ‘From Our Readers’ which features articles by Frank Koszorus, Jr. (“The United States and Hungary – Long Time Friends Right from the Start”) and János Brenner (“Atop Flanders Poppies and Other Bloopers”).
Currently, 58 issues of the Hungarian Review from 2010 through 2021 can be ordered from amazon.com; or directly from the publisher; or by calling the Coalition office in Washington.