History of the Department of 18th Century Literature
The 18th Century Research Group was established in 1970 by József Szauder who led the group until his death in 1975, Lajos Hopp followed him until he died in 1996, the next person who led the group was György Kókay, from the year 2000 to present Gábor Tüskés is the head of the department.
The goal of the research, the textological and the science organizer program is to reveal and value the literary heritage of the century by devoting special attention to the antecedents of the Enlightenment, its cultural historical progression and the European connections. This effort was represented in a volume of essays titled Literature and Enlightenment (1974) edited by József Szauder and Andor Tarnai.
The department together with a closely affiliated panel and the Hungarian 18th Century Association holds monthly debates and every second or third year organizes scientific conferences. Among the international conferences that were held in Mátrafüred during the years of the nineteen-seventies and the eighties the Enlightenment sessions were the most significant. The texts were published between 1971 and 1987 in six volumes titled La Lumière en Hongrie, en Europe Centrale et en Europe Orientale. In 2002 the department organized two conferences; one together with the National Széchenyi Library and the Bod Péter Society under the title Péter Bod as the Scholar of the Historia Litteraria (published in 2004) and one with the Grimmelshausen Society entitled Das Ungarnbild in der deutschen Literatur der frühen Neuzeit (the text was published in 2005). In 2004 the department organized a conference under the title Historia Litteraria in the 18th Century for the occasion of the tricentennial of the birth of Ferenc Faludi and the 10th anniversary of Andor Tarnai's death (the text was published in 2006).
The main activities of the department are text and source publications and science- and genre history research. Between 1964 and 1988 the whole Kelemen Mikes critical edition was published in six volumes and began the work on the critical editions of the works of Ferenc Rákóczi the Second, György Bessenyei and György Kalmár. The source publishing of the 17-18th Century theatrical art at schools began and significantly progressing in the series entitled Sources and Literature of the Hungarian Theatrical Art at Schools and in the Old Hungarian Dramatic Memories in the 18th Century. The Protestant School Dramas from the 17-18th Century in Latin source publication series is now being prepared and the publishing of the Treasury of Old Hungarian Poets 18th Century series’ volumes is continuing. The result of the science history researches is a bibliography titled Historiography of Literature in the 18th Century can be reached on the net also.
The XML coding of the electronic publishing of the 18th Century texts is in experimental stage. The members of the department published several individual monographs and volumes of essays.
Between 1994 and 2006 there have been six research programs that were maintained; the European connections of the narrative literature, the emblematics, the letters and minor writings of Ferenc Rákóczi the Second, the 1701–1772 period of the history of Hungarian literary science and criticism, the genres of religious literature and the 18–19th century Hungarian popular literature which were supported by OTKA (National Scientific Research Fund).
Some members of the department are teaching at different universities and maintaining close contacts with those university workshops that are researching XVIII. century literature. The main characteristics of the scholarly work is the processing their own basic research and original source; the consistent usage of the comparative attitude and the principle of the interdisciplinary; to highlight and emphasize the less explored fields with new methods; the continuous publications of new results on international professional forums; co-operation with scholars outside of the Institute in the process of source exploration, processing and publication.