Hungarian Women Writers, 1790–1900

Abstract

The end of the eighteenth century in Hungary saw important changes in practically all areas of intellectual life. These processes were closely connected with the recognition of the need to standardize a new literary language, which led to lengthy and wide-ranging debates. From our vantage point, it appears that the literary history of Hungary at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century is marked by a clear conflict between conservatism and modernism. In fact, neither of the opposing camps — that is, neither the innovators, too impatient to tolerate the slow pace of organic growth, nor the defenders of traditional cultural and conceptual values — represented a distinctive and coherent value system. The resulting shifts of paradigm may, indeed, owe their success to this fact: as it allowed for a consensus between the opposing camps on a number of fundamental issues.