On 11 April the Hungarians go to vote. Observers expect a massive swing to the right. Hungarian essayist and critic László F. Földényi explains why. Földényi, born in Debrecen in 1952, is one of Hungary’’s most prominent intellectuals. He teaches comparative literature at the Loránd Eötvös University of Budapest and has written numerous essays as well as books on Heinrich von Kleist, Caspar David Friedrich and melancholy. His most recent book is a lexicon of Imre Kertész’s Fatelessness.  László F. Földényi talks to Paul Jandl about Hungary’’s ongoing crisis, racist incidents and the new anti-Semitism. The forthcoming election in Hungary […]

Has Poland made it to the West?  Following the attacks on the Hungarian Nobel Prize laureate in literature, Imre Kertész, Eastern and Central Europe is wondering how western it really is. Is Poland part of Europe? Has it made it to the West?  These questions keep coming up again and again.  Yet they are regarded almost as an affront on the Vistula. The Poles have always considered themselves Europeans. Writers and intellectuals have been saying so for decades:  Poland has to return to Europe where it has always belonged culturally.  Sympathies for the West have always been strong here.  At […]