Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena

Dr Tamás Scheibner

Fellow Tamás Scheibner

March - August 2012
Mail: scheibner.tamas(at)btk.elte(dot)hu

Tamás Scheibner is Assistant Professor in Comparative and Hungarian Literature and Cultural Studies at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. He holds MA degrees in Literary Studies from ELTE and in History from Central European University. His PhD dissertation focused on socialist realism and the Stalinization of Literary Studies in Hungary in the 1940s and 1950s.

Research project at the Kolleg

The research project focuses on practices and discourses of Stalinization and de-Stalinisation in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s in the field of literary studies in the countries of the former 'Eastern Bloc.' Taking the Hungarian case as a starting point, the research extends to the Soviet, East German, Czechoslovakian, Polish, and Yugoslavian contexts as well. By revisiting Stalinization and de-Stalinization in literary studies, the project intends to show, on the one hand, that socialist realist language and canon had to be adapted to and synchronized with national traditions in a rather significant extent, producing local versions of socialist realism; and on the other hand, that the homogenization of literary studies was resisted and sometimes undermined by international exchange of various concepts and practices of interpretation. As such, de-Stalinization in literary studies could be interpreted as a largely transnational phenomenon in which urban intelligentsia with cosmopolitan affinities played a key role, however, in the face of new archival research their agency in the process needs to be also reconsidered.

Main areas of research

  •     Cold War Culture
  •     Cultural Politics during Communism/Socialism
  •     Eastern and Western Marxism and Literary Theory
  •     20th Century Cultural and Intellectual History

Positions and Memberships

  •     Since 2011: editor of the academic journal Irodalomtörténet ('Literary History')

Edited Volumes

Eds. with: Szilágyi, Márton: Színek, terek, emberek. Irodalom és színház a 18-19. században [Scenes, Places, Characters. Literature and Theatre in the 18th and 19th Centuries: Selected Studies by Ferenc Kerényi], Budapest 2010.

Eds. with: Lóránd, Zsófia/ Vaderna, Gábor/ Vári, György: Laikus olvasók? A nem-professzionális olvasás értelmezési lehetőségei [Lay Readers? Possibilities of Interpreting Non-Professional Reading], Budapest 2006.

Eds. with: Vaderna, Gábor: Tapasztalatcsere: Esszék és tanulmányok Bodor Ádámról [Exchange of Experience. Essays and Studies on Ádám Bodor], Budapest 2005.

Eds. with: Szegedy-Maszák, Mihály: Der lange, dunkle Schatten: Studien zum Werk von Imre Kertész. Wien 2004.

Eds. with: Szücs, Zoltán Gábor: Az értelmezés szükségessége: Tanulmányok Kertész Imréről [The Necessity of Interpretation. Studies on Imre Kertész], Budapest 2002.

 

Articles (selection)

Ungarn und die Europäische Union: Vom "Musterknaben"zum "Krisenfall"?,, in: Ost-West: Europäischen Perspektiven 13.1 (2012), S. 70-76.

Postcolonial Age, or postcolonial Eastern and Central Europe? Critical remarks from a Hungarian point of view, in: Baltic Worlds 3.2 (June 2010), S. 41-44.

Három hagyomány az angol-amerikai eszmetörténet-írásban [Three Traditions of Anglo-American Intellectual History], in: Helikon - Irodalomtudományi Szemle 55.1-2 (2009), S. 37-51.

Átjárások. "Fiatal" értekezőpróza a kétezres években [Reflections on Literary Studies as a discipline in the 2000s in Hungary], in: Alföld 60.12 (2009), S. 103-115.

Okres postkolonialny czy postkolonialna Europa Wschodnia i Środkowa?, in: Porównania 6 (2009), S. 65-73.

Reviews

Whatmore, Richard/ Young, Brian (Hrsg.): Palgrave Advances in Intellectual History, in: East Central Europe 37.2-3 (2010), S. 398-401.

Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe. Vol. I: Late Enlightenment - Emergence of the Modern 'National Idea.' Vol. II: National Romanticism - The Formation of National Movements (eds. Balázs Trencsényi - Michal Kopeček). Budapest-New York: CEU Press, 2006. Studies in East European Thought (Special Issue on 'Trends and Traditions of Intellectual History Writing') 62.2 (June 2010), S. 245-247.
Stalin and the Szeklers: A History of the Hungarian Autonomous Region, 1952-60. East Central Europe 37.1 (2010), S. 150-152.

Ungváry Krisztián - Tabajdi Gábor: Elhallgatott múlt. A pártállam és a belügy. A politikai rendőrség működése Magyarországon, 1956-1990 [Silenced Past. The Party State and the Ministry of the Interior. The Operation of the Political Police in Hungary]. East Central Europe/L'Europe du Centre-Est: Eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift (2008. október 21.).

A sztálinizmus irodalma Romániában [The Literature of Stalinism in Romania]. Irodalomtörténet 89.3 (2008), S. 475-483.

Please find more information on Tamás Scheibner´s academia.edu profil.