Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Like the renowned American writer Edmund Wilson, who began to learn Hungarian at the age of 65, Richard Teleky started his study of that difficult language as an adult. Unlike Wilson, he is a third-generation Hungarian American with a strong desire to understand how his ethnic background has affected the course of his life. He writes with clarity, perception, and humor about a subject of importance to many North Americans - reconciling their contemporary identity with a heritage from another country. But more than a collection of essays on ethnicity by a talented writer, the book is structured to share with the reader insights on language, literature, art, and community from a cultural perspective. The book is also unified by the author's attention to certain concerns, including the meaning of multiculturalism, the power of a language to shape one's thinking, the persistence of anti-Semitism, the significance of displacement and nostalgia in emigration, the importance of understanding the past, the need for a narrative tradition in the writing of fiction, and the power of books in Central Europe. Because of its interdisciplinary nature, the book makes a contribution to several fields: Central European and Hungarian studies; North American immigrant and ethnic studies; contemporary literature; comparative literature; and popular culture.Synopsis
Like the renowned American writer Edmund Wilson, who began to learn Hungarian at the age of 65, Richard Teleky started his study of that difficult language as an adult. Unlike Wilson, he is a third-generation Hungarian American with a strong desire to understand how his ethnic background has affected the course of his life. He writes with clarity, perception, and humor about a subject of importance to many North Americans - reconciling their contemporary identity with a heritage from another country. But more than a collection of essays on ethnicity by a talented writer, the book is structured to share with the reader insights on language, literature, art, and community from a cultural perspective. The book is also unified by the author's attention to certain concerns, including the meaning of multiculturalism, the power of a language to shape one's thinking, the persistence of anti-Semitism, the significance of displacement and nostalgia in emigration, the importance of understanding the past, the need for a narrative tradition in the writing of fiction, and the power of books in Central Europe. Because of its interdisciplinary nature, the book makes a contribution to several fields: Central European and Hungarian studies; North American immigrant and ethnic studies; contemporary literature; comparative literature; and popular culture.
Library Journal
Teleky (administrator, creative writing program, York Univ., Toronto) explores his Hungarian heritage in this splendid collection of interdisciplinary essays. Some of the pieces are intensely personal, such as "Adult Language Learning, Edmund Wilson and Me," while others offer a survey of Hungarian influences on popular culture. Teleky writes knowledgeably about films, religious customs, stereotypes, the challenge of translating the language, Hungarian characters in the fiction of John O'Hara (and other writers), and the photography of Andr Kertsz. In the final essay, he examines his own perceptions of ethnicity and struggles with an acceptance of being Hungarian. Teleky includes a comprehensive and diverse bibliography that will lead the interested reader to other relevant writings about Hungarian culture. This collection is appropriate for most academic libraries and for public libraries that serve large central European populations.Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, Pa.