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Hungarian literature. Until the 19th cent. Latin was Hungary's literary language. The Funeral Oration (c.1230) is the oldest surviving work in Magyar; some 14th and 15th cent. chronicles also exist. The Reformation prompted various translations of the Bible. The poets BAlint Balassa (late 16th cent.) and MiklOs Zrinyi and IstvAn GyOngyOssi (17th cent.) were succeeded in the 18th cent. by VitEz MihAly Csokonai and Ferenc Faludi. In the last quarter of the same century, Hungarian literature was given fresh life with the work of GyOrgy Bessenyei, while Ferenc Kazinczy led a reform of the Hungarian language. The establishment of a national theater and the founding in 1825 of the Hungarian Academy of Science assured the development of a national literature. The leading literary figures in the 19th cent. were the poets KAroly Kisfaludy (also a noted dramatist), his brother SAndor, JAnos Arany, MihAly VOrOsmarty, and SAndor Petöfi, and the novelist MOr JOkai. Endre Ady and Attila JOzsef were the outstanding early 20th cent. poets; the dramatists Ferenc Herczeg and Ferenc MolnAr achieved international fame. Between the two World Wars, novelists were divided into three groups : the Horthy regime defenders; the Populists, who sought improvement of the peasants' lot; and the Communists. The most eminent Populist was LAszlO NEmeth. After World War II, Hungarian literature fell under Soviet influence, and the Communist party exercised rigid control over writing and publishing. Writers who adhered to the Soviet doctrine of socialist realism included the poet GyOrgy SomlyO and the prose writers GEza Hegedus and JOzsef Darvas. Diverging from this doctrine were the poet LAszlO MEcs, published only outside Hungary, and the novelist Tibor DEry, who was imprisoned for his nonconformity. The revolt of Oct., 1956, whose participants included a number of prominent writers, was followed by a gradual easing of censorship; with the collapse of the Communist regime, censorship ended.
See histories by F. Riedl (tr. 1906, repr. 1968), T. Kloniczay and H. H. Remak (1982), and L. CzigAny (1984); J. RemEnyi, Hungarian Writers and Literature (1965); L. Degh, ed., Folktales of Hungary (tr. 1965); M. Vajda, ed., Modern Hungarian Poetry (1977); T. Kloniczay, ed., Old Hungarian Literary Reader (tr. 1985).
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