Remaining an Outsider in the 18th Century : Diary of a Hungarian Noble

Csikós, Gábor (2020) Remaining an Outsider in the 18th Century : Diary of a Hungarian Noble. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF LIFE WRITING, 9. pp. 113-132. ISSN 2211-243X

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Abstract

György Nagy was an eighteenth-century merchant and nobleman in the Jászság region, and his diary for the period 1759 to 1769 gives insights into his self- identity. Even though it is not explicitly stated, the document is infused with a sense of being an outsider. This study attempts to find the bases of this sentiment using the methods of cultural psychology, and seeks to explore his particular responses to conflicts that arose in his life. Four factors can be identified which made the diary’s au- thor an outcast: (i) Nagy came from outside the Jászság region; (ii) his univer- sity-level education and profession distinguished his lifestyle from that of the landed peasant majority; (iii) his identity as a member of lower nobility; (iv) the conjunction and combination of these circumstances all at once. It was Nagy’s ancestry which was the principal determinant his self-image and exercised the greatest influence over his decisions (loans, etc.). Other factors (his decision to move to the region, his intellectual tendencies) speak of his individuality. This dichotomy is present in the very act of keeping a diary as well: even though he was working for the good of a broader group (his family), the urge to preserve a piece of his self is apparent from his writing. As for Nagy’s descendants, the importance of these qualities declined; they integrated into local society as the sources of otherness disappeared. The only exception was his youngest son, a Law graduate (the grandfather of Iván Nagy, a genealogist), who continued to keep the diary, as did his offspring. Thus, atypical tendencies were preserved by the atypical.

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