György C. Kálmán
IN: Partitúra Irodalomtudományi folyóirat, Volume: IX. Issue 2, 2014, p. 39-50., ISSN 1336-7307
DOI: 10.17846/PA.2014.9.2.39-50
Literary societies formed in Hungary in the 19th century played a very important role in organizing and stimulating (partly simulating) literary life in Hungary. Among their functions there was the promotion of publications, forming the canon through prizes and awards, vitalization of critical life, creating space for literary discussions. For the beginning of the 20th century, however, most of these functions were taken over by a normalizing development of the literary field (a market, a public sphere, an autonomous structure of literary magazines and publication, etc.) – so that the new generation of the actors did not feel it neither necessary nor comfortable to take part in the older organizations. Moreover, these societies became more and more conservative, closed and hostile towards the modern literatures, and also had close ties with politics. The study gives a sketch of this phenomenon, trying to explore the main motives and steps of the parties involved.
