Think Tank

Another Brick in the Wall: Literary Exclusion, Nationalism, and Memory Wars in Hungarian Education

Authors/Researchers

Maya Wong (Hunter College)

Mentors

Dr. Emily Gioielli (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Hungary, a nation in East-Central Europe, has been routinely condemned for democratic backsliding over the last decade. When Prime Minister Viktor Orbán signed the provisions for the National Core Curriculum (NAT) revision into law in 2020, protests broke out across the country due to the inclusion of fascist and antisemitic works in the literary canon and the exclusion of significant Jewish authors. By examining Hungary’s role in the Second World War, the cultural and socio-political implications behind the government decree becomes clearer. Through an analysis of the press, official statements, and the work of Imre Kertész, one of the authors demoted in the NAT, “Another Brick in the Wall: Literary Exclusion, Nationalism, and Memory Wars in Hungarian Education” seeks to contextualize Hungary’s current cultural-political debates within a wider framework of historical trauma and political transformation. The intersection of nationalism, memory politics, and Hungarian Jewish literature suggests that the now-marginalized perspectives provided by the work of excluded authors disrupts the historical narrative promoted by the Orbán government, which is still trying to solidify a new definition of Hungarian identity.