No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Denunciatory Press and Neo-Avant-Garde Theatre in Cold War Hungary: ‘If necessary, let's ban!’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2025
Abstract
In this essay, I analyse how practices of press denunciation operated within Hungary and impacted the theatrical landscape during the Cold War era. I examine how this technique of denunciatory criticism was transformed in Hungary with the change from the Stalinist ideocratic field of power to a post-Stalinist, now post-ideocratic, system, and also how denunciatory theatre criticism in the press, in its most severe form in the given circumstances, operated in this system. Adopting a structural approach, my aim is to examine what I am calling the ‘denunciatory article or criticism’ – the published article denouncing a particular artist or work aiming at ‘withdrawing from circulation’ the targeted artist, work or, indirectly, sometimes a whole series of artworks, or an entire movement. I argue that the denunciatory article is part of the system of state cultural control rather than simply aesthetic criticism. I am taking a well-known case in Hungary – the neo-avant-garde artists of Balatonboglár – to explore the operations of sociopolitical and professional power that resulted in the exile of these artists from Hungary in the early 1970s. In an era of ‘fake news’ and of increasing censorship of publications, this operation of power is becoming increasingly relevant and urgent.
Information
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International Federation for Theatre Research
Footnotes
1
English translation by Lóránd Rigán.
References
NOTES
2 A version of the study appeared in my monograph uncovering the history of denunciatory theatre criticism in Hungary: SHUT UP! Theatre Criticism of Denounciation in Cold War Hungary (Pécs: Kronosz, 2022) (in Hungarian).
3 Ákos Szilágyi, ‘Zene helyett’ (In Lieu of Music), 2000, 26, 3 (2014), pp. 38–50.
4 László Szabó, ‘Happening a kriptában’ (Happening in the Crypt), Népszabadság, 16, 12 (1973), p. 2.
5 Pál Ignotus, ‘A magyar kultúra s a nemzetiségek: Utóirat. A perzekútor-esztétikáról’ (Hungarian Culture and the Nationalities: Postscript. On Persecutor Aesthetics), Nyugat, 4 (February 1908), pp. 227–8.
6 J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words: The William James Lectures Delivered at Harvard University in 1955 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), pp. 128–33.
7 It has to be added that a neo-avant-garde movie, Flaming Creatures, was banned even in New York in the 1960s.
8 The term ‘happiest barracks’ (also sometimes referred to as ‘goulash communism’) is a name coined for Cold War Hungary, referring to its relative freedom and welfare compared to the other states of the communist bloc.
9 ‘How paradoxical the relations between the first and the second public sphere were, can be shown through a statement by György Konrád, in which he says that acting in subcultures means to extend the given hegemonic order rather than to completely deny it.’ Andrea Bátorová, ‘Interview with Katalin Cseh and Adam Czirak about the Second Public Sphere in the Former Eastern Bloc’, ART Margins Online, 23 October 2014, at www.artmargins.com/index.php/5-interviews/754-interview-with-katalin-cseh-and-adam-czirak-about-the-second-public-sphere-in-the-former-eastern-bloc (accessed 29 October 2017), my translation.
10 A specific example: in contemporary Hungary, a highlighted moment of the notorious ‘cultural struggle’, known as Kultúrkampf, was Árpád Szakács's twenty-part article series published in the government-controlled press in 2017. The inaugural installment of this series was: Árpád Szakács, ‘Kinek a kulturális diktatúrája – A balliberális rettegők és listázók csak a valóságot nem veszik tudomásul’ (Whose Cultural Dictatorship Is It – The Terrified and List-Making Leftist Liberals Simply Do Not Acknowledge Reality), Magyar Idők, 17 November 2017, at https://magyaridok.hu/velemeny/kinek-kulturalis-diktaturaja-2449939 (accessed 15 May 2018).
11 This era lasted from 1956 to 1989 and was named after the party's leading politician, János Kádár. After the Hungarian revolution in 1956 was defeated by Soviet troops, Kádár was selected to lead Hungary. He began his regime with retaliation against the revolutionaries, but from 1963 he gradually moderated. He manoeuvered between Moscow, Western interests and local needs, reforming policies and attempting to liberalize the Hungarian economy.
12 Sergei Korolev, ‘Feljelentés Oroszországban’ (Denunciation in Russia), 2000, 9 (1999), pp. 52–62, here p. 58.
13 Ignotus, ‘A magyar kultúra s a nemzetiségek’, pp. 227–8.
14 Ibid., p. 228.
15 Ákos Szilágyi, ‘Állam és formalizmus’ (State and Formalism), 2000, 3 (2014), pp. 11–37, here p. 32.
16 The case is presented below mainly on the basis of this study.
17 Ibid., p. 30.
18 Ibid., p. 31.
19 A. Ionyin, Ja. Lerner and M. Medvegyev, ‘Okolotityeraturnij trutyeny’, Vecsernyij Lenyingrad, 29 November 1963, cited by Efim Etkind, The Trial of Iosif Brodsky (London: Overseas Publications Interchange Ltd, 1988), p. 46.
20 Ákos Szilágyi, ‘Irodalompolitika és legitimáció’ (Literary Policy and Legitimation) (1986), manuscript, pp. 3–4.
21 Béla Biszku was a communist politician, ‘the toughest fist of the soft dictatorship’ in Hungary.
22 The Orfeo artistic group was active during the 1970s. Some of its members adhered to ideas related to the events of 1968 and were connected to individuals who were convicted in the so-called Maoist trial for their leftist views. Therefore they drew the authorities’ attention primarily due to their political connections rather than their distinctive puppetry aesthetics. These attacks demoralized the puppet theatre company and contributed to its disintegration.
23 In 1972 the last trial against an author – Miklós Haraszti, for exposing the exploitation of the working class in his sociological work Darabbér (Piecework Pay) – took place. First publication: Berlin, Magyar Füzetek, 1975. Second publication: Paris, Magyar Füzetek könyvei 1., 1980.
24 In 1973, there was the trial of the members of the Lukács school of philosophy. The case famously known as the ‘philosophers’ trial’ originated from the party's stance entitled Néhány társadalomkutató antimarxista nézeteiről (On the Anti-Marxist Views of Some Social Scientists). During this incident, the regime detained and expelled philosophers and sociologists, removed them from the party, dismissed them from research institutes, and imposed publication and travel restrictions against them. The ‘philosophers’ trial’ marked the last occasion of ideological pressure exerted by the authorities, accompanied by administrative intervention in Cold War Hungary.
25 In 1974, György Konrád and Iván Szelényi wrote their samizdat work: György Konrád and Iván Szelényi, Az értelmiség útja az osztályhatalomhoz (The Path of the Intelligentsia to Class Power) (Bern: Európai Protestáns Magyar Szabadegyetem, 1978; samizdat edn, 1985; Budapest: Gondolat, 1989). In 1975, Szelényi left the country, and with this ‘wave’ of emigration the ‘advice’ that sociologists should leave should be also mentioned.
26 Szabó, ‘Happening a kriptában’, p. 2.
27 György Galántai, organizer of the events of the Balatonboglár Chapel Studio, visual artist. In the same year (1973) as the publication of László Szabó's article, the exhibition space was banned by order of the authorities, and in 1979 he established the Artpool Kutatóközpont (Research Centre) with his wife Júlia Klaniczay.
28 Edit Sasvári and Júlia Klaniczay, eds., Törvénytelen avantgárd (Budapest: Artpool-Balassi, 2003), p. 27.
29 Szabó, ‘Happening a kriptában’, p. 2.
30 Edit Sasvári, ‘Miért éppen Pór?’ (Why Pór Specifically?), in Zsuzsanna Kőrösi, János M. Rainer and Éva Standeisky, eds., Évkönyv VIII. 2000. Magyarország a jelenkorban (Annals VIII. 2000. Hungary in the Present) (Budapest: 1956-os Intézet, 2000), pp. 124–52, here p. 126.
31 Szabó, ‘Happening a kriptában’, p. 2.
32 Sasvári, ‘Miért éppen Pór?’, p. 126.
33 Tamás Szentjóby, Miklós Jankovich and Gábor Altorjay, The Lunch. In Memoriam Batu Khan. In the Cellar of István Szenes, 1966; Palm Sunday (A Happening by Tamás Szentjóby and Gábor Altorjay in the Cellar of Miklós Erdély), 1966.
34 Barna Horányi, ‘Törvénytelen úton néhány avantgarde: Illegális kiállítások, műsorok’ (Some Avant-Garde Artists on an Illegal Path: Illegal Exhibitions, Shows), Somogyi Néplap, 8 July 1971, p. 5.
35 Sasvári, ‘Miért éppen Pór?’, p. 126.
36 László Esztergomi, ‘Keserédes barangolás a Balatonnál: Problémák, lehetőségek’ (Bittersweet Roaming at Lake Balaton: Problems, Opportunities), Magyar Hírlap, 18 July 1971, p. 10.
37 Sasvári and Klaniczay, Törvénytelen avantgárd, p. 187.
38 Gábor Neumann, ‘Discussion with László Szabó’, Táskarádió (Transistor Radio), Kossuth Rádió, 14 January 1990; Ferenc Markovits, ‘Kápolna-tárlat: Támadás a kápolna ellen’ (Chapel Exhibition: Attack on the Chapel), Kossuth Rádió, 9 October 1990, cited in Sasvári and Klaniczay, Törvénytelen avantgárd, p. 449.
39 Történeti Hivatal, O–16 268/1., Horgászok I. fedőnevű dosszié, 190–194 (Historical Office, O-16 268/1, ‘Fishermen I’ code-named dossier, 190–194), cited in Sasvári, ‘Miért éppen Pór?’, p. 126.
40 Sasvári and Klaniczay, Törvénytelen avantgárd, p. 10.
41 Ibid., p. 188.
42 Letter from István Eörsi to István Sarlós, editor in chief of Népszabadság. István Eörsi, ‘Mi bújt elő a kriptából?’ (What Emerged from the Crypt?), 19 December 1973, cited in Sasvári and Klaniczay, Törvénytelen avantgárd, p. 219.
43 Austin, How to Do Things with Words, pp. 128–33.
44 Zsolt K. Horváth, ‘URH-kocsi, Kék fény és Szabó László maszkja’ (The VHF Car, the Blue Light, and László Szabó's Mask), Beatkorszak.blog.hu, 3 September 2017, at http://beatkorszak.blog.hu/2017/09/03/urh-kocsi_kek_feny_es_szabo_laszlo_maszkja (accessed 10 September 2020).
45 Ibid.
46 Zsolt K. Horváth, ‘A barbárokra várva: A bűntény ábrázolásának teleológiája a Kántor című szocialista krimiben’ (Waiting for the Barbarians: The Teleology of the Representation of Crime in the Socialist Crime Series Kántor), Korunk, 3 (2011), pp. 90–104, here p. 92.
47 Ibid.
48 Barna Horányi, ‘Törvénytelen úton néhány avantgarde’, p. 9.
49 Sasvári and Klaniczay, Törvénytelen avantgárd, p. 12.
50 Szabó, ‘Happening a kriptában’, p. 2.
51 Economist János Kornai considers it premature in economic terms to introduce universal services to satisfy the right to social benefits and services in Hungary, given the extremely low quality of the services in the socialist state. The term ‘premature’ refers to the fact that the level of development in the socialist economy does not allow for the possibility of high-quality services and benefits, as there is a huge discrepancy between the theoretically available entitlements and the actual level of services provided. There have been and still are opponents to his theory from the left and from the perspective of social policy.
52 Andrea Tompa, ‘“You Called Me, Dear Führer!” Béla Pintér: The Champion, Katona József Theatre, Budapest', Theater Heute, 7 (July 2016), p. 36.
53 Noémi Herczog, ‘My Exotic Girlfriend: Independent Hungarian Art in Hellerau’, Critical Stages, 30 (2024), at www.critical-stages.org/30/my-exotic-girlfriend-independent-hungarian-art-in-hellerau (accessed 10 February 2025). Andrea Rádai, ‘Independent Companies Closing Down or Slowly Dying’, Hungarian Letter of News, CITD-Színház, October, 2023 https://www.citd.us/_files/ugd/40a24c_b37948acb945448cb7121fe441811e83.pdf (accessed 8 July 2025).