Parallel Session 14.

Chair: Dávid Fehér

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Tibor Kosztolánczy

Freedom fight or guerrilla marketing? Polarizing discursive strategies in the early years of Nyugat, a Hungarian periodical (1908–1910)

Over the next fifty years after World War II's end, generally, Hungarian literary history interpreted the first decade of the 20th century as a period of struggling for artistic and literary freedom. According to several handbooks and analyses, the periodical Nyugat was one of the foremost forums for bringing about radical changes to the cultural hierarchy and for breaking conservative hegemony. It is clear that post-WWII Hungarian communist literary theory was using Nyugat as an element in the process of its self-legitimation. Moreover, the prominent members of Nyugat – e.g. Ignotus, Endre Ady, Miksa Fenyő – unintendedly provided valuable input to this concept since they, when launching their periodical in 1908, described their work as a mission for freedom in literature, similarly to their German role models. More subtle and realistic concepts of the early 20th century were rarely articulated until the 1980s, when scholars began reconstructing divergent – individual and group – endeavours in the early years of Nyugat. Though, it is still common to use warlike terminology when discussing the early 20th century, as the era was characterized by strong opposition between modern and conservative writers. As a starting point of my analysis, I will emphasize the fact that, despite the polarizing discursive strategies of emerging modernist literary journals, the law between 1867 and 1914 provided liberal regulation for the press and that a wide range of opportunities were also available for publishing fictional works. Before 1914, a person could start a magazine by simply notifying the local mayor’s office. According to my hypothesis, the tension in literature was caused mainly by generational conflicts among the artists. As an example, the editors of well-known magazines felt that the new ones were harming their circulation. On the other hand, sounding threatened on the side of new periodicals could be considered a means of guerilla marketing. Within a couple of years, Nyugat managed to occupy a central position in the hierarchy of literary magazines, though its circulation widened only slightly. As a part of my presentation, I will analyse polemics of the era as well as literary correspondence and editorial documents.

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Maria Nikolopoulou

“To bring a ‘Happening’”: American counterculture in little magazines of the 1960s in Greece

In the early 1960s certain Greek writers and artists came into contact with poets of the Beat Generation who visited the country or stayed there for shorter or longer periods. They are attracted by the Beats’ countercultural practices and their apolitical dissent, which seems a way to overcome the cultural divisions shaped by the Cultural Cold War and the aftermath of the Greek Civil War. For the Beats, Greece is a premodern space that allows them freedom and, at the same time, a parochial culture they want to disturb through avant-garde practices. Moreover, they view its present reality through its ancient past. Both groups are interested in the legacy of surrealism and neo-avant-garde, both challenge official American culture and Cold War ideology. The interaction of these two groups of artists is obvious in three periodicals of the period: To allo stin Techni (editor: L. Christakis, 1963), Pali (editor: N. Valaoritis, 1964-1966) and Residu (editor: D. Richter 1965). The first two are in Greek (but include texts in English), the third publishes texts in English by Greeks and Beats who live or have lived in Greece.  The paper aims to explore how these writers challenge the concept of both center and periphery, by questioning the dominant discourses of the Cold War and mainstream American and Greek culture, and how they create transnational encounters based on transgressive cultural identities. Their little magazines, both in terms of texts and layout are the loci of these encounters, creating a counter public, which grew in the 1970s.

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Matrona Paleou

Cultural mediations and publication culture in Greece: The case of the periodical Tram

This presentation focuses on the Greek periodical Tram, which provides significant information concerning the developments in the cultural field over a period of almost three decades, starting in the midst of the Colonels' Dictatorship and ending up in the Third Hellenic Republic (Thessaloniki 1971–1972, 1976–1979, 1987–1991, 1996). It was primarily a literary periodical, but it also highlights artistic creation, while it refers to current cultural developments. It is particularly interesting to examine the Tram, firstly, because it was published in Thessaloniki, a provincial city in the north of Greece with a long history and rich cultural tradition, and secondly, because it brought forth –at least during the first two periods of its release- a new generation of Greek writers, the so-called 1970s generation, that were influenced by neo-surrealism, avant-garde and the underground and were open to experimentation in writing. In this regard, it offers an example of how the “periphery” can crucially contribute to the cultural developments, staying far from the competitive environment of the “centre”. The Tram is seen as a cultural object and as the product of the dynamic relationship between a group of actors in the cultural field and a wider network, where the material dimension of the publishing project meets aesthetics and ideology. In this respect, this study will explore the content, the editorial choices and the network of contributors, in view of the historical, political and social context of that time, aiming to highlight the main issues concerning the creation, formation and development of the Tram and its importance as a channel of cultural communication. This research therefore seeks to contribute to the mapping of the publication culture in Greece from the 1970s onwards, as well as to improve our understanding of it.