LITERARY SOCIETIES AND MODERNISM: THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF THE KAZINCZY CIRCLE IN KASSA AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

Abstract

Literary societies are in focus both of literary studies and social history.1 In particular, they played an important role in the modernization of Central Europe in the 19th century. Becoming widespread in this era, they helped develop a democratic2 political culture and disseminated literature to a wider audience. Hungarian historiography has depicted this period as one of large-scale social segregation and a fragmented middle class which refused to have any contact with the bourgeoisie,34 while Slovakian historians have emphasized the exclusion of Slovaks from elite society.5 Kassa (today Košice), which was then situated in northern Hungary and is now the largest city in eastern Slovakia, has, however, been recognized as a more complicated example that challenges these assumptions.6 For instance, the importance of local citizenry was preserved in the first half of the 19th century, in contrary to other cities in Hungary.7 The purpose of this article is to examine the composition of the most prominent social club of the town to provide fresh insights into the social history of Kassa in this period, and the larger processes shaping urban life in Central Europe in the period before the First World War. In particular, this article argues that a culture of both pluralism and exclusion was evident in the membership of Kassa’s Kazinczy Circle, and that their affiliations reveal a more complicated social network in the city, which both preserved communal solidarity during a period of rapid urbanization and encouraged the growth of modern democratic values.