Keyword – cult of Ady

Szénási, Zoltán:

Changes in Új Nemzedék’s Ady-image between 1919 and 1929

In 1919, Új Nemzedék, a political daily founded in 1913, was re-launched as an outlet for the radical right. It evinced a strongly anti-Semitic rhetorical stance after the fall of the Hungarian Republic of Councils, which also dominated the discussion of actual cultural events. It made an effort to create a Christian-national literary canon in the post-1919 years in an attempt to integrate not only the representatives of national conservatism into the canon, but also the “Christian” authors of Nyugat (Ady, Babits, and Móricz). After 1922, a change in the editorial board brought about a change in the opinion on Ady. His poetical significance was not at all doubted later, yet the political and moral objections which characterised the nationalist conservative literary perspective of the period resurfaced. In addition to describing the changing Ady-image of Új Nemzedék, this paper aims to explore how the process related politically to the history of journalism and criticism.

Keywords: anti-semitism, conservativism, cult of Ady, Új Nemzedék, political Catholicism, radical right