Hidden operettas in a novel

Eszter Tarjányi

IN: Partitúra Irodalomtudományi folyóirat, Volume: XI. , Issue 2, 2016, p. 31-50., ISSN 1336-7307

DOI: 10.17846/PA.2016.11.2.31-50

Abstract:

The study examines the genre of operetta in Dezső Kosztolányi’s novel Pacsirta (Skylark) from a new perspective, mainly from the cultural research of the genre. Two different operettas play a role in shaping the novel: Sidney Jones’ The Geisha and Ferenc Lehár’s The Skylark. The study is not a typical comparative analysis, rather it examines the ironic similarities in both genres. It also concentrates on how the genre of popular culture can provide a basis for the psychological novel.

Keywords: Dezső Kosztolányi’s Skylark, popular culture, popular genres, operetta, psychological novel

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Partitúra is a Hungarian literary journal published in Slovakia twice a year. The first edition was issued in 2006. From 2007 to 2014 its publishers were the Faculty of Central European Studies at The Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra in cooperation with Sambucus Literary Society. Since 2014 the Faculty of Central European Studies at the CPU in Nitra became the sole publisher.

The journal releases peer-reviewed scientific articles, literary studies and art reviews of both Hungarian as well as world literature. It is also a forum for essays on several other arts and intercultural relations. Furthermore, special attention is devoted to the Central European literature and literary studies; the magazine not only publishes the reviews of such studies, but also provides the arena for reflections about them. The journal aims to give an account of the contemporary Hungarian literature of the Hungarian minorities as well as to serve as a cluster for discourses.

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