Pázmány Papers – Journal of Languages and Cultures

Introduction

2024-12-31T12:36:52+00:00

The concept of hospitality, as explored through various disciplinary lenses, offers fertile ground for philosophical inquiry and practical reflection. The second issue of Pázmány Papers brings together a collection of articles that delve into Jacques Derrida’s seminal ideas on hospitality and their manifold implications across ethics, politics, art, and society. Unified by a thematic focus, the contributors provide a multi-faceted examination of the tension between unconditional and conditional hospitality, as well as its theoretical and applied dimensions.

Hospitality – the Pulse and the Pulsation of Deconstruction

2024-06-24T09:24:56+00:00

With the title “Hospitality – the Pulse and the Pulsation of Deconstruction,” this article tries to present and to highlight Derrida’s Deconstruction as a philosophical idiom, trying to emphasise its singularity – its singularity as an idiom of philosophical thought as well as the singularity of its thought of hospitality, advocating it as the bearer of Lights for the urgency of a new “world” of Enlightenment to come.

Hospitality (and the) Inhuman

2024-08-22T09:55:50+00:00

During the second year of his Hospitality seminar, Jacques Derrida dedicates a prominent place to the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. Also due to the unusual modalities of this seminar – and, as the editors of the published volume underline, having improvised a considerable part of the sessions, whereas he would usually write down a text that he read throughout – Derrida shows peculiarly adherent to Levinas’s thought. Deploying an extensive reading of the latter’s texts, the seminar shows a proximity that the published essays do not allow perceiving. This article wishes to interrogate this proximity, focusing on the motive of the inhuman (hospitality for the inhuman, and/or the inhumanity of hospitality), both in a critical and in a constructive fashion, and to address some current issues as pertains hospitality (and the) inhuman in the current Italian normative context.

Undecidability and the Reference of Formal Systems

2024-09-06T12:21:32+00:00

This paper attempts to provide an account of the reference of formal systems. I assume (on grounds that I cannot lay out fully) that formal systems can be considered to be referential, that is, capable of formulating truths in the correspondence sense, on two conditions: 1. that they are consistent and 2. that they contain true but unprovable formulas. The first of these conditions is self-evident; the second, by contrast, cannot be assumed without begging the question, without presupposing truth before accounting for its possibility. I argue, however, that Kurt Gödel’s proof of the inevitability of undecidable formulas in any formal system provides a ground for assuming the existence of true but unprovable sentences without presupposing objective truth. For this, however, we need to develop a different sense of ‘true’ from what is usually assigned to the undecidable formula. Using insights from Jacques Derrida, I argue that we can legitimately conceptualize the truth of the undecidable formula as referring not to some objective reality but to the formal system itself.

The The Host Hosted

2024-09-03T07:37:32+00:00

My article focuses on the Derridean aporias of unconditional and conditional hospitality. I argue that Kleist’s play Amphitryon performs a two-fold deconstruction of the elementary conventions of hospitality. First, hospitality is practiced only after the guest is (falsely) recognized as the head of the household, which on the one hand confronts us with the impossibility of hosting the host, but on the other hand points to a possible condition of unconditional hospitality, which is the anonymity – and hence interchangeability – of the guest and the host. Second, and not independently from the first, Kleist’s play also illuminates not-knowing or the unknown as a key factor of hospitality, which makes hospitality an open secret in the sense that its conditions are never fully revealed but have never been fully concealed either.

The Derridean (Un)Hostility of Fashion

2024-07-10T08:39:23+00:00

“There is, to all appearances, a philosophic hostility to fashionable dress” – writes Karen Hanson in “Dressing Down Dressing Up: The Philosophic Fear of Fashion”. Hanson’s study identifies several points – from the ever changing nature of fashion to the ethicality of the fashion industry – from which philosophy has historically criticized and continues to criticize fashion as a social phenomenon, industry, and art form. In this sense, deconstruction indicates new critical design practice and (self-)critique of the fashion industry. The notion of “hostility” in the vocabulary of deconstruction and psychoanalysis is identical to the event of resistance. It is thus a genuinely defining feature. At the same time, its self-positioning consists of the creation and reception opened up by the object. Its developers (Freud, Derrida, de Man) recognized that in this “counter-feeling,” or resistance, a new layer of interpretation and experience, previously only felt but not thought of, operates. Fashion’s deconstructive processes exist in this resistance. There have been many attempts to link fashion research and the designers’ conception of design to deconstruction. As Flavia Loscialpo already puts it this way: “Deconstruction fashion, which is always already in-deconstruction itself, involves, in fact, a thorough consideration of fashion’s debt to its own history, to critical thought, to temporality and the modern condition.” In my paper, I will make some arguments from the side of deconstruction concerning fashion in general, but also try to describe the nature of a postmodern “fashion process” (including the design thinking, the materiality of clothing or textiles, and even the theoretical perception of fashion). Through the writings of Derrida and Freud, I examine the critical fashion practices of Martin Margiela.

Joseph Rex Young: George R.R. Martin and the Fantasy Form, New York: Routledge, 2019

2024-10-16T06:37:01+00:00

Joseph Rex Young’s book titled George R.R. Martin and the Fantasy Form fills a tremendous gap that has been present in contemporary fantasy studies: while several books have been written about the study of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire that focus on the different readings of the fantasy series, and the success of the mega franchise that grew out of the narrative, Young’s monograph attempts to find Martin’s place in the modern fantasy genre. One of the most refreshing aspects of the book is that instead of treating Tolkien and his work as the exemplar of fantasy, Young highlights how while it is to some extent understandable (since Tolkien’s popularity in the genre is beyond dispute), “Tolkien was a hugely idiosyncratic writer whose inspirations, motives and methodologies bear little resemblance to those of the authors of genre fantasy, much of which consists of narrative iterations of pre-existing intellectual properties” (4–5). While several comparisons have been made in fan circles between The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire, and how Martin has changed the rules of the fantasy genre, Young argues that instead of abandoning the rules of the fantasy formulae, Martin followed them very strictly. Thus, George R.R. Martin and the Fantasy Form is about the analysis of how Martin’s epic saga relates to the genre of fantasy.

Les sorties du texte, ed. Anikó Ádám and Anikó Radvánszky, Paris, L’Harmattan, A propos, 2021.

2024-12-31T12:46:11+00:00

The study titled Les sorties du texte, edited by Anikó Ádám and Anikó Radvánszky, aims to analyze the work of Roland Barthes and the underlying ideas behind it in the light of our current knowledge. Regarding the juxtaposition and the individual elaboration of the various elements of Barthes’ thought system, the method used in this volume mainly follows the methodology used by Barthes in his essay addressing Georges Bataille’s Le gros orteil. This is reflected in the studies with different themes placed directly next to each other, which though not without some arbitrary simplification – can be grouped into four categories based on their topics: the first examines Barthes’ intellectual and personal presence within the circles of contemporary French and Hungarian intellectuals; the second deals with Barthes’ semiology; the third studies Barthes’ political thinking; and the fourth – through eight different studies – offers a versatile insight into the works of the French author or the general tendencies of his thoughts.

The Mouth and the Tongue – or the Dictator and the Dentist

2024-09-03T07:36:34+00:00

In this paper I attempt to give a reading of Andrea Tompa’s two novels by examining one chosen chapter from each work, hoping that the investigation will provide insights into the work as a whole. I will approach the text through close reading and examine the poetic and semantic role of the body parts that appear in the text. In The Hangman’s House, the focus will be on the mise en abyme and we will have a better understanding of the metaphoric process. In Home, an essayistic travel novel, the interplay of literal and metaphorical meanings and the question of allegory will be raised. The contrast between medical themes and an artistic approach reveals the relationship between language and home, and the strangeness inherent in that which is one’s “own”.

The Resonance of Bios and Zoe in Several of Ágnes Nemes Nagy’s Poems Written around 1960

2024-05-16T10:48:43+00:00

After a brief explanation of Agamben's concepts of bios and zoe, and a discussion of Ágnes Nemes Nagy’s specific use of sound devices, this paper analyses a few of her poems that relate to the genesis of her 1967 collection Napforduló [Solstice]. These poems attempt to give voice to those that, in a worldview constructed from a human perspective, are voiceless. Essentially melopoetic, these poems are also examples of ars poetica performative texts. Using to the full the phonetic and rhythmic resources of poetry, the poems also give an account of their own genesis. The study seeks to answer how these formal aspects of the poems contribute to their power, and how, in combination with their theme, they relate to the question of (im)personalisation and the suspension of the human factor, as well as of entering into the perspective plants might have on the world. It examines the means by which Ágnes Nemes Nagy was attempting to bring nature’s non-anthropomorphic (yet organic) creatures to the fore, and to give them a voice.

The (Un)translatability of Metaphors

2024-09-16T12:17:13+00:00

The Golden Pot, as Hoffmann’s first and most artistical tale, has also been canonized as his literary ars poetica. Henceforth, the intertextual relationship which connects the work to the popular genres of education- and artist novels of the Goethe Era, especially to Novalis’ experimental novel, Henry von Ofterdingen, is given as the authentic milieu of the interpretation. So far, according to literary reception viewing from this angle, The Golden Pot is regarded to be an education novel, as well as the “caricature of it”, which consequently shows a complex reflection of Hoffmann’s ironic-critical attitude towards the programme of the early German Romanticism. Therefore, the greatest challenge the translator must face, is to imply this ironic relation, which is expressed in multiple layers of linguistic metaphors and in various elements of the German text. The perception of metaphorical meanings and of poetical functions of these elements, i. e. their explications or implications as motifs have a defining value of the work’s literary meaning. In my paper, using five different Hungarian editions of The Golden Pot, I would like to draw attention to some of the actual examples of these, yet unsolved translation and interpretation problems, which deprive the Hungarian readers of comprehending all the layers of the meaning in some parts of the text.

Hungarian EFL learners’ Perception of Intrusive R in English

2024-07-19T07:22:31+00:00

This study investigates the perception of Intrusive R among Hungarian learners of English. 24 participants performed an AX discrimination task focusing on sentence pairs with and without Intrusive R. Of 264 instances of detectable Intrusive Rs, participants accurately identified 58 (21.97%), and in 78 other cases (29.55%) they managed to find the difference but could only identify it indirectly. Factors influencing perception included the presence of another /r/ near the intrusive one and the order of the sentences in the perception task.

Preface to the review series

2024-12-31T14:36:03+00:00

Why a Hungarian History of English Literature, one might ask. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, as the country’s borders opened, the paradigm of English Studies in Hungary changed: teaching through discussions wrapped in soft pipe smoke late into the night as it used to happen in scholarly or university circles during the Socialist regime was not enough anymore. The then young authors of the volume had to understand that to establish themselves on the international academic stage they need to publish in English journals, and in English. Yet, István Géher (1940–2012), a revered mentor and even father figure to the several present generations of Hungarian scholars insisted that Hungarian scholars should care to publish in Hungarian, for a Hungarian audience.
The volumes of the new Hungarian history of English literature fulfil that mandate,

Az angol irodalom története. I: A középkor. [The history of English literature. The Middle Ages], edited by Tamás Karáth and Katalin Halácsy, Kijárat, Budapest, 2020.

2024-12-31T14:40:55+00:00

In the age where Wikipedia, big data, and ever-improving AI seem to make knowledge accessible at the click of a button, one might question the relevance of a traditional, paper-based literary history. This very issue is addressed in the editorial introduction to the first volume of the new Hungarian History of English Literature, a seven-volume project originally conceived by the late Géza Kállay and now carried forward under the general editorship of Tamás Bényei. While Bényei attempts to answer this query in the preface, it is through the content of the first volume, dedicated to medieval English literature, co-edited by Tamás Karáth and Katalin Halácsy, that we find a more nuanced and persuasive justification for such an enterprise.

Az angol irodalom története. II: A kora újkor irodalma az 1480-as évektől az 1640-es évekig [The history of English literature. The literature of the early modern period from the 1480s to the 1640s], edited by Attila Atilla Kiss and Endre György Szőnyi, Kijárat, Budapest, 2020.

2024-12-31T14:45:25+00:00

Volume 2 of the History of English Literature is a remarkable collection of essays edited by Attila Atilla Kiss and Endre György Szőnyi, offering a profound exploration of early modern English literature and culture, while also showcasing the intellectual prowess of an established yet continuously rising generation of Hungarian scholars. The book, which might aptly be titled The Hungarian History and Research of Early Modern English Literature, represents a significant contribution to Hungarian scholarship. It presents an updated and nuanced understanding of what Hungarian lay readers typically refer to as the English Renaissance.

Az angol irodalom története. III–IV: Az 1640-es évektől az 1830-as évekig. Első és második rész [The history of English literature. III: From the 1640s to the 1830s. Parts 1 and 2], edited by Zsolt Komáromy, Bálint Gárdos, and Miklós Péti, Kijárat, Budapest, 2021.

2024-12-31T14:49:59+00:00

Volume 4 of the Hungarian History of English Literature is in fact the second part of volume 3. These volumes together cover the literature of the “long 18th century”, the period between the 1640s and the 1830s, and while volume 3 – after the general introduction – discusses the poetry of the era, volume 4 focuses on drama and prose. Accordingly, volume 4 is divided into two sections, one on drama and one on prose. Each section begins with a useful introduction (by Veronika Schandl and Gabriella Hartvig, respectively), which gives an overview of the issues discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters.

Az angol irodalom története. VI: Az 1930-as évektől napjainkig. Első rész [The history of English literature. VI: From the 1930s to the present. Part 1], edited by Tamás Bényei, Kijárat, Budapest, 2024.

2024-12-31T14:58:55+00:00

Volume 6 of the History of English Literature seeks to achieve the same objective as its predecessors: to provide a comprehensive overview of the literature of the British Isles in a manner that is accessible and engaging for both professional scholars and general readers. In attempting to appeal to this diverse audience, the success of the volume is evident, as each chapter has been authored by scholars from both Hungary and abroad. Volume 6 is, like its predecessors, the bright yellow-shaded fruit of collaborative efforts of relatively distant yet intellectually connected minds.

Az angol irodalom története. VII: Az 1930-as évektől napjainkig. Második rész [The history of English literature. VII: From the 1930s to the present. Part 2], edited by Tamás Bényei, Kijárat, Budapest, 2024.

2024-12-31T15:03:23+00:00

Volume 7 is a worthy closure of the mega project to provide an overview of the history of English literature(s) for a Hungarian audience. The last unit covers the time range from the 1930s to the present, divided into two parts (volumes 6 and 7, respectively). Spanning over 660 pages, excluding bibliography and index, volume 7 starts with the swinging sixties and ends with Brexit literature. The chapters mostly follow a chronological order, and the majority of them contain subchapters which makes navigating the book easier.