The polycentric approach to literature and culture in the first editorial generation

of the Novi Sad-based periodical Új Symposion

István LADÁNYI

(University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary)
Institute of Literary and Cultural Studies

(lada1594@gmail.com)

The members of the first editorial generation of periodical Új Symposion were looking for novel approaches for the special situation of the Hungarian minority culture in Yugoslavia. The relative isolation from the Hungarian culture of the homeland and the paucity of the minority cultural milieu, meaning also compromises in quality, directed their attention to the South-Slavic area’s literature- and culture-related movemenst. The cultural context of their  literary texts, essays and critiques binds these works to the South-Slavic cultural and social milieu, therefore the meaning construction of the texts works only partly in relation to the mother tongue and the mother culture. This phenomenon is peculiar especially in the 1960s but the polycentric literature and culture approach can be observed later on too. If we consider the phenomenon from the viewpoint of the Hungarian culture, we can lay down that it contributed to regional centers’ increased significance in the Hungarian literature and culture.