The English language Budapest Sun offers a lengthy write up of the English language Hungarian Quarterly, which delights and fascinates us since our Hungarian is, well, you remember the whole mondavcsinalt saga ...
Recent issues include such delectables as an interview with János György Szilágyi, former head of the department of classical antiquities at the Museum of Fine Arts; an excerpt from a memoir about growing up Roma by István Kalányos, articles about Hungarian history by István Deák and John Lukacs, an article explaining with great clarity the history of political attitudes in Budapest; and several reviews of books, music, theater, film, and art (including an article about a Munkácsy exhibit). Not your typical journalism, by a long shot!
The magazine was founded in 1936, but put to sleep in 1941, when Hungary entered WWII. In its current form, it was reincarnated in 1960. Zsófia Zachar, the quarterly's current editor, explained that Iván Boldizsár persuaded the government of János Kádár that the magazine would be a "very good opening toward the West, following the reprisals of the 1956 revolution, and Hungary's isolation then." It would be "an indication that Hungary wants contact with the western world," she said.
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