Tüskés Anna írása

október 29th, 2020 § 0 comments

review

Ka­rá­di Zsolt. Fran­ci­ák és ma­gya­rok: Ta­nul­má­nyok a fran­cia és a ma­gyar iro­da­lom­ról. Nyír­egy­há­za: Örök­sé­günk, 2018.

This coll­ec­ti­on of es­says is an im­por­tant cont­ri­bu­ti­on to the field of French li­ter­ary stu­di­es of the se­cond half of the 19th cent­ury and of the 20th cent­ury. Zsolt Ka­rá­di, an ex­cel­lent spe­ci­a­list in the his­to­ry of Hun­ga­ri­an li­te­ra­tu­re and the­at­re, head of the De­part­ment of Li­ter­ary Stu­di­es at the Uni­ver­sity of Nyír­egy­há­za, of­fers in this book his French-related stu­di­es writ­ten over the past two decades.

Like the vo­lu­me The French Spi­rit Around the Re­view Nyu­gat (1925–1935) by Pi­ros­ka Ma­dá­csy in 1998, it will be­co­me a va­lu­ab­le re­sour­ce for stu­dents and scho­lars in the field of French-Hungarian li­ter­ary re­la­tions. Di­vi­ded into th­ree sec­tions, it beg­ins with stu­di­es on Franço­is Ga­chot and the French-Hungarian li­ter­ary and fine art re­la­tions bet­ween the two world wars. The se­cond sec­ti­on fo­cus­es on the po­etry of Baude­laire and Rim­baud, and stu­di­es the is­sues of French-Hungarian trans­la­ti­on sty­lis­tics in con­nec­ti­on with the Hun­ga­ri­an trans­la­ti­on of one of the­ir ly­ri­cal works. The third sec­ti­on has no Hun­ga­ri­an re­le­vance: th­ree stu­di­es deal with Baudelaire’s pro­se works, Pa­ra­dis ar­ti­fi­ci­el, the po­etry of Fran­cis Jam­mes, and Yann Andréa’s book on Mar­gue­ri­te Du­ras (Je vo­ud­ra­is par­ler de Du­ras, 2016).

This vo­lu­me de­monst­ra­tes that li­ter­ary com­pa­ra­tive stu­di­es are fully in­ter­dis­cip­li­nary: the analy­ses sho­uld be bas­ed on a com­bi­na­ti­on of dis­cip­li­nary stu­di­es, such as the his­to­ry of dip­lo­macy, re­se­arch of in­ter­na­ti­o­nal stu­dent mo­bi­lity, ins­ti­tu­ti­o­nal his­to­ry, emig­ra­ti­on re­se­arch, and mi­li­tary his­to­ry. French inf­lu­en­ces play an im­por­tant role in the en­ti­re Hun­ga­ri­an li­te­ra­tu­re of the 20th cent­ury: French li­te­ra­tu­re is a cons­tant ins­p­ira­ti­on for Hun­ga­ri­an cul­tu­re. The stu­di­es of the first sec­ti­on pre­sent the twenty-five ye­ars Ga­chot spent in Hun­gary (1924–1949) by exp­lor­ing, studying and analy­sing ma­nuscript and prin­ted sour­ces in pub­lic coll­ec­tions (the Ma­nuscript De­part­ments of the Pe­tő­fi Li­ter­ary Mus­e­um, the Hun­ga­ri­an Aca­demy of Sci­en­ces and the Szé­ché­nyi Na­ti­o­nal Lib­rary). The poet, writer, French tea­cher and dip­lo­mat taught French lan­gu­age, li­te­ra­tu­re, and cul­tu­re first at the Eöt­vös Col­l­e­ge in Bu­da­pest, then at se­ve­ral gram­mar scho­ols and at the Col­l­e­ge of Fine Arts. In ad­di­ti­on to his tea­ch­ing and dip­lo­ma­tic ac­ti­vi­ti­es, it is re­la­ti­vely rare to talk abo­ut Gachot’s li­ter­ary works, alt­ho­ugh he has writ­ten in all th­ree gen­res and trans­la­ted. His first vo­lu­me of short stori­es was pub­lis­hed in Pa­ris in 1924 un­der the tit­le Jeux de Da­mes, be­fo­re his ar­ri­val in Hun­gary. In 1943, the Ma­dách The­at­re pre­sen­ted his dra­ma Szép Fü­löp (Phi­lip the Fair). He trans­la­ted se­ve­ral Hun­ga­ri­an works into French.

Thanks to the in­ter­views con­duc­ted by Ilo­na Fo­dor, Csa­ba Nagy, Ág­nes Ke­le­véz and Ló­ránt Kab­de­bó with Ga­chot in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as to Zsolt Karádi’s stu­di­es and book from 1998, Gachot’s ac­ti­vi­ti­es in Hun­gary and his fri­ends­hip with con­tem­por­ary Hun­ga­ri­an ar­tists be­came re­la­ti­vely well-known. Ka­rá­di ma­inly analy­sed Gachot’s writings in pe­ri­o­di­cals and books, as well as the let­ters kept in the Ma­nuscript Ar­chive of the Pe­tő­fi Li­ter­ary Mus­e­um. Karádi’s stu­di­es cont­ri­bu­te sig­ni­fi­cantly to the ear­li­er image of Franço­is Gachot’s li­ter­ary work and his re­la­ti­onsh­ips with ar­tists. Of co­ur­se, the exp­lo­ra­ti­on of newly ava­i­lab­le sour­ces can pro­vi­de sig­ni­fi­cant new data for Gachot’s French-Hungarian net­work of contacts.

Anot­her im­por­tant di­men­si­on of this vo­lu­me is the li­ter­ary trans­la­ti­on analy­sis. Two ar­tic­les of the se­cond sec­ti­on com­pa­re th­ree Hun­ga­ri­an trans­la­tions of the Cor­res­pon­dan­ces of Baude­laire by Ár­pád Tóth, Lő­rinc Sza­bó and Jó­zsef Tor­nai, or the two vers­ions of the Hun­ga­ri­an trans­la­ti­on of Une cha­rog­ne by Jó­zsef Tor­nai. Anot­her two ar­tic­les deal with the Hun­ga­ri­an trans­la­ti­on of Baudelaire’s Chant d’automne by Jenő Dsi­da and that of Rimbaud’s Mi­chel et Ch­ris­tine by Lász­ló Nagy.

This vo­lu­me tes­ti­fi­es to the gro­wing scho­larly in­te­rest in Hun­ga­ri­an trans­la­tions of French texts du­ring the 20th cent­ury. Karádi’s vo­lu­me goes to the core of a num­ber of im­por­tant prob­lems. Who are the most succ­ess­ful trans­la­tors of French ly­ri­cal works into Hun­ga­ri­an in the 20th cent­ury? Whe­re is the bo­un­dary bet­ween trans­la­ti­on, adap­ta­ti­on, transcript­ion and in­terp­re­ta­ti­on? How did the ide­al of trans­la­ti­on chan­ge over the cent­ury? One work has been pub­lis­hed in se­ve­ral dif­fe­rent Hun­ga­ri­an trans­la­tions over the co­ur­se of the cent­ury: trans­la­tions made in the late 19th cent­ury or the first de­ca­des of the 20th cent­ury no lon­ger pro­ved to be pub­lis­hab­le af­ter fif­teen or fifty ye­ars. For examp­le, Ju­les Verne’s no­vel Mrs. Bra­ni­can was trans­la­ted twi­ce; th­ree Hun­ga­ri­an trans­la­tions of An­toine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Litt­le Prin­ce are known; five trans­la­tions of Émi­le Zola’s Ger­mi­nal were made du­ring the century.

In French and Hun­ga­ri­ans, the aut­hor has bro­ught to­get­her a num­ber of ex­cel­lent ar­tic­les that will no do­ubt gre­atly cont­ri­bu­te to the on­go­ing in­te­rest in the role of trans­la­ti­on. To­get­her, the ar­tic­les emp­has­i­ze the many and comp­lex pro­ces­ses that can take place as li­ter­ary texts are trans­la­ted th­ro­ugh lan­gu­age, time, and place. The­se es­says also warn us aga­inst the risk of neg­lec­ting the im­por­tance of French li­ter­ary stu­di­es in uni­ver­sity curricula.

Tar­ta­lom

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