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Author(s) -
Mihály Szegedy-Maszák
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
studia litteraria
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2063-1049
pISSN - 0562-2867
DOI - 10.37415/studia/2014/53/4151
Subject(s) - vision , narrative , soul , consciousness , focus (optics) , hero , history , swift , literature , sociology , art , philosophy , epistemology , anthropology , computer science , physics , optics , programming language
Between 22 August and 19 December 1822 the weekly Budapesti Visszhang published a narrative entitled Remembrances in 13 installments. In 1853, Phantom Visions on the Soul’s Horizon by the same author, Zsigmond Kemény appeared as a full-length book. Are these two versions of the same work of fiction, or should they be read as different works? The earlier text has both thematic and structural closure. Although there is some continuity between the two texts, Phantom Visions is an elaboration on Remembrances. The focus is shifted to the consciousness of the characters, and an emphasis is put on the international background: a glance backward reveals the past of the hero’s father-in-law, detailing his role in the French revolution of 1789, his disillusionment at the way it developed, and his escape from his country. The new elements, including the portrayal of the tension between Hungarians and Romanians, make Phantom Visions a far more complex work than its predecessor.