IDENTITIES AND RECEPTION: THE CASE OF TERKA LUX, RENÉE ERDŐS AND SOPHIE TÖRÖK

Abstract

The attempts of the last decades to interpret and reshape the canon of Hungarian literary history have strongly emphasized the marginalization of women writers and the study of their works. Research supports the need for biographical and contextual knowledge to understand the processes, but does not exclude the reading and interpretation of these literary works. Despite this, the limits of the canon and its defining power in literary history have not changed. This is the perspective from which I explore the reactions of the literary environment to the novels written by Terka Lux, Renée Erdős and Sophie Török, linking them to the construction of the identities of the three women writers. Leányok (Young Ladies) by Lux Terka, A nagy sikoly (The Great Scream) by Renée Erdős and Nem vagy igazi! (You are not the real one!) by Sophie Török are mostly interpreted from the perspective of the three women’s personal lives, which has also led to the neglect of aesthetic and narrative approaches. Regarding the three novels, the writers’ religious affiliation, ethnicity, sexuality, and use of pseudonyms explicitly influenced their perception, which in turn had an impact on their personality. Themes such as abortion, lack of sex education and the taboo of the female body are also present in other novels by the three writers, but they appear in various other theoretical works of theirs, too. In this way, we can observe on the one hand their attempts to consciously express their opinions and assume social responsibility, and on the other hand the reactions of the literary environment, obviously influenced by the gender of the authors. I chose the three authors precisely because they are very different from each other: first, each of them is located in a different position on the spectrum of political options between liberalism and conservatism, then, they also differ in the way in which they voice their own opinions. Lux and Török deal with the mentioned themes in a deliberate manner, but while Lux tries to hide the details of her private life from the public, Török is not concerned with this aspect. Erdős, on the other hand, distances herself from such take, revealing more details of her private life to the public. Despite these differences, the three writers face similar reactions from the public and the literary community.