Literary Journal 2017/4. Reformation, Language, Literature

The topic of this issue of Literary Journal is the Protestant Reformation and its effect on Hungarian literature. In Hungary, an unprecedented development of language and culture took place at the time of the Reformation and in close relation with it. From the literary point of view, the Hungarian prose was born at that time, with Bible translations, Holy Scripture exegesis, sermons, confessions, polemics and tales authored by writers like Gáspár Heltai, Gáspár Károli and Péter Bornemisza, and linked by many ways to the ideological and societal ambitions of Protestantism. Literary Journal offers a detailed presentation of the writers of that time, known and less known representatives of the poetry of Hungarian Protestantism, and composers of church songs in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

Literary Journal places the topic in the broadest context possible. It studies the cultural effects of the Reformation on literature, with many references to the language, culture, book, education and music history aspects. The last thematic unit of the issue presents 19-20 century literary works dedicated to the history of the Reformation, including A rajongók [The fanatics] by Zsigmond Kemény, A reformáció genfi emlékműve előtt [Before the Monument of Reformation in Geneva] by Gyula Illyés, and Protestánsok [Protestants] by János Székely.