The Reception History of the “Vanitatum Vanitas” Motif in Hungarian Literature of the Second Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

This study examines the reception-history of Ferenc Kölcsey’s Vanitatum vanitas, with a particular emphasis on the second half of the 19^th century. In the poems of Pál Gyulai, Jenő Komjáthy, Gyula Reviczky and János Vajda, I analyse intertextual references that might have reminded contemporary readers of the work, written in 1823. Among the devices of evocation, I focus primarily on formal allusion, interpreting the meaning-making potential of form and rhythm through the questions raised in poems influenced by Kölcsey. Texts reflecting on Vanitatum vanitas broaden the interpretive possibilities of the work, and I also investigate this system of influence while exploring the reception history of the text. The study further discusses how authors of the Reform Era and the post-revolutionary period after the failed War of Independence engaged with the idea of “all is in vain”, and how their poetry either affirmed or rejected this notion. The diversity of the discovered intertextual references provides evidence of the considerable influence of Ferenc Kölcsey’s work on Hungarian literature during the period under examination.