Ferenc Herczeg’s “linguistic” career

Herczeg Ferenc nyelvváltásáról

Abstract

The unique life of Ferenc Herczeg, who was a banned author between 1945 and 1980, can be summarised in a nutshell as follows: how the German-speaking boy from the Swabian region of Banat, becomes the Hungarian playwright who put Hungarian drama on the path to European success, a committed writer of national endeavours, and the creator of a successful Hungarian prose and dramatic oeuvre. The subject of the research is to explain where and how Ferenc Herczeg’s „language program” became so successful, since „There was no other native speaker who learned Hungarian as well as Ferenc Herczeg” (Hegedűs). Examining the language path, the research may explain the adaptation considered to be the key to success and the contribution of the author’s bilingualism to the foundation of success. In the case of Herczeg, social, cultural and linguistic assimilation is so successful that it gives rise to countless speculations. The majority of the criticism seeks his social adaptation, and reflects less on linguistic assimilation. The item to prove is that Herczeg, a German-speaking boy of Swabian descent, became Hungarian because of the literature-centric Hungarian culture.