László Ungvárnémeti Tóth

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László Ungvárnémeti Tóth (born  February 17, 1788 in Kistokaj (near Mischkolz , Borschod County , Hungary ); †  August 31, 1820 in Vienna ( Austria )) was a Hungarian poet who wrote works in the classical style in Hungarian and ancient Greek .

Life

László Ungvárnémeti Tóth was born in the small Hungarian town of Kistokaj as the son of an Evangelical Reformed pastor and the daughter of a shoemaker from Mischkolz . At the request of his parents, he started studying Reformed theology in Patak am Bodrog .

Ungvárnémeti Tóth himself was much more interested in poetry and science, especially medicine. Since mastery of the German language was a prerequisite for studying medicine at the time , he went to Eperies in 1810 , where he studied German and ancient Greek with great enthusiasm. In Eperies he also met the Hungarian poet Ferenc Kazinczy , with whom he remained on friendly terms.

In 1814 Ungvárnémeti Tóth moved to Pest and began to study medicine. At the same time he devoted himself to his poetic work and published from 1816. Since he had increasing difficulties financing his studies and, after appropriate advice, wanted to take up a scholarship from the Catholic Church, he joined in 1816 without any internal connection to the Christian religion Catholic faith about.

In 1818 Ungvárnémeti Tóth moved to Vienna and completed his medical studies there, in the end under very poor conditions. Before he was admitted to practice as a doctor, he died in Vienna at the age of 32, presumably of cholera in August 1820 .

plant

Ungvárnémeti Tóth's poetic work is characterized by the tension between classicist poetry and his own modern reality, which is shaped by the emerging natural science . An "anachronistic phenomenon [...] like Hölderlin", Ungvárnémeti Tóth treats the fate of humans in the world of the Enlightenment in an expressive language, trained on Pindar and Anacreon , but also "distant, crystalline, self-contained, abstract" language . His ancient tragedy Nárcisz vagy a 'gyilkos önn-szeretet (“Narcissus or Die Murderische Selbstliebe ”) revolves around the fateful self-referentiality of the ego that has been thrown back on itself in the modern age.

Works (selection)

  • Verse . ("Poems"). Plague 1816.
  • Nárcisz vagy a 'gyilkos önn-szeretet (drámai költemény) . ("Narcissus or Die Murderische Selbstliebe (dramatic poem)"). Plague 1816.
  • Görög versei. Magyar Tolmácsolat Valley . (“Greek poems with Hungarian translation”). Plague 1818.

reception

After his short life, László Ungvárnémeti Tóth quickly fell into oblivion, until the Hungarian poet Sándor Weöres rediscovered what he called the “most intelligent Hungarian author”. In his fictional anthology Psyché (1972) Weöres published excerpts from Ungvárnémeti Tóth's works side by side with the poems of the fictional poet Erzsébet Lónyay and made him known again. The Hungarian film director Gábor Bódy served Psyché as a starting point for his feature film Narcissus and Psyche (1980) so that the (excessive allegorically) life Ungvárnémeti Tóth s and his work moved into the center of a film. László Vidovszky , who is responsible for the film music for Narcissus and Psyche , composed an opera based on Nárcisz vagy a 'gyilkos önn-szeretet in 1980/81 .

literature

(Hungarian) text editions

  • László Ungvárnémeti Tóth : Nárcisz vagy a 'gyilkos önn-szeretet (1816) . Ed .: Zoltán Hermann . Ráció- Verlag (accessed January 22, 2011), Budapest 2005 (120 pages, first edition: 1816).
  • Selected texts by László Ungvárnémeti Tóth (including an abridged version by Nárcisz vagy a 'gyilkos önn-szeretet ) are published in Psyché by Sándor Weöres .

Secondary literature

  • Géza Hegedüs : A magyar irodalom arcképcsarnoka . (“A portrait gallery of Hungarian literature”). Hungarian Electronic Library, Budapest 2003, urn : nbn: hu-3155 (first edition: 1991, MEK-01149).
  • József Szinnyei : Magyar írók élete és munkái . (“Life and work of Hungarian writers”). Hungarian Electronic Library, Budapest 2006, urn : nbn: hu-5608 (first edition: 1914, MEK-03630).
  • Sándor Iván Kovács : Weöres Sándor és Ungvárnémeti Tóth László . (" Sándor Weöres and László Ungvárnémeti Tóth "). In: Új Holnap . ("New Tomorrow"). Miskolc University , Miskolc March 1996.
  • Zsuzsanna Csikós, Zoltán Fáy : Ungvárnémeti Tóth László pályakezdése . (“The early years of László Ungvárnémeti Tóth s”). In: Új Holnap . ("New Tomorrow"). University of Miskolc , Miskolc March 1996 ( eMag ( memento of October 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed February 25, 2016]).
  • Éva Ócsai : A Lyrical Novel and its Filmic Adaptation. ( Sándor Weöres: Psyché and Gábor Bódy : Narcissus and Psyche) . In: TRANS. Internet journal for cultural studies . No. 16 . Institute for Research and Promotion of Austrian and International Literary Processes , 2006, ISSN  1560-182X ( eMag [accessed on January 22, 2011]).

Individual evidence

  • Quotes by Sándor Weöres from: Sándor Iván Kovács : Weöres Sándor és Ungvárnémeti Tóth László . (" Sándor Weöres and László Ungvárnémeti Tóth "). In: Új Holnap . ("New Tomorrow"). Miskolc University , Miskolc March 1996.
  1. ↑ “ anakronisztikus jelenség […] mint […] Hölderlin”, beginning of the 10th paragraph
  2. ↑ " élettõl elforduló, kristályszerûen zárt, elvont ", end of the 10th paragraph
  3. ↑ " legintelligensebb magyar szerzõrõl ", end of the 3rd paragraph

Remarks

  1. ↑ 1817 according to Géza Hegedüs
personal data
SURNAME Ungvárnémeti Tóth, László
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tóth, László Ungvárnémeti
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian poet
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1788
PLACE OF BIRTH Kistokaj
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1820
Place of death Vienna