Acasă Articole RTR Comparative Literature and the Politics of Universality: The Trans/National Ontology of Jean...
Comparative Literature and the Politics of Universality: The Trans/National Ontology of Jean Hankiss
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Abstract: Despite occasional claims to the contrary, literary studies, including literary theory and comparative literature, has never been an “autonomous” field detached from politics. However, there have been historical moments when the two terrains overlapped to an alarming extent. One such period was the 1930s and the wartime years in Europe when the continent gradually and largely fell under authoritarian or dictatorial rule. This was certainly not an atmosphere or juridical context favorable to comparative research. Contact between colleagues from different countries was restricted, and many fled to Turkey or the New World. Still, several comparatists remained active during these years, publishing articles and books, attempting to correspond across borders, giving lectures, and teaching students. The aim of my research is to map the field of comparative literature in Europe under such unfavorable circumstances. In this paper, my purpose is to shed light on the activities of the Hungarian professor of literature, János (Jean) Hankiss (1893–1959), who, as a protégé of Fernand Baldensperger, played a crucial role in organizing comparative literature as an academic field in Europe in the 1930s and is remembered as one of the spiritual founding fathers of the ICLA. However, Hankiss’s legacy is not without controversy. While he was undoubtedly an advocate of intercultural dialogue, he compromised himself politically by accepting, in April 1943, a post with the rank of state secretary in the Ministry of Religion and Public Education. After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, he resigned this post and was elected rector of the University of Debrecen for 1944–45. Although much of the relevant archival material housed in the National Archives was destroyed in a fire, I will reexamine Hankiss’s political involvement within the broader context of his cultural philosophy as a literary scholar, drawing on his personal records and publications. In my paper, I will focus on how Hankiss mobilized the concept of European (and world) literature to advance Hungarian foreign policy.
Keywords: comparative literature, cultural diplomacy, interwar Europe, fascism, nationalism, universalism, Hungarian revisionism, Europeanness, literary politics.
Acknowledgement: This paper was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
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