Hungarian Rhapsodies: Essays on Ethnicity, Identity, and Culture

Daniel Kolos is president of Benben Books, a company publishing
scholarly works.

There are more Hungarian Rhapsodies than the 19 Liszt composed. Richard
Teleky arranges his essays as a symphonic composition.

Introduction: Teleky juxtaposes himself with Edmund Wilson as two
Anglophone males studying Hungarian. This contrapuntal essay is strong
in technique but weak on tonality: although he claims he is on a quest
to explore his “Hungarian-ness,” it sounds more like he is engaged
in self-indulgence.

First movement: Teleky’s quest for identity is both personal and
intellectual. Two essays develop the former. One deals with the life of
photographer André Kertész. In the other, Teleky himself visits a
Hungarian immigrant church in Cleveland and concludes, “I was an
intruder.” This self-conscious otherness is his starting point, and
his roots only come alive when he finds that the founder of the church
baptized and gave communion to his grandmother in the 1870s, before
coming to America.

Slow movement: A dark and dusty bookshop in Toronto is the perfect
milieu for introspection about identity.

Third movement: Returning to the intellectual quest for identity,
Teleky teaches a course titled Central European Literature in
Translation. His students become quite enthusiastic when novels by dead
writers are placed alongside contemporary essays. After noting that
“no one had expected [the course] to be relevant,” Teleky turns to a
brilliant contemporary Hungarian writer to prove his point. Peter
Eszterhazy is a relevant literary figure: postmodern, Hungarian,
world-class. Teleky’s own literary soul shines when he reviews
Margaret Avison’s translation of Hungarian poetry.

Recapitulation: In a very personal essay, Teleky visits Hungary and
achieves a tragic quality. He spends only one day with his relatives and
has no chance of concluding his quest successfully.

Conclusion: Teleky struggles with his failure to define his ethnicity
in personal terms. It is so much easier to intellectualize culture.