Classicism and neoclassicism in the poetry of Mihály Babits

Jankovics, József (2012) Classicism and neoclassicism in the poetry of Mihály Babits. Hungarian Studies, 26 (1). pp. 79-91. ISSN 0236-6568

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Abstract

Classicism or Modernity? It was not difficult to give an answer to this question for Mihály Babits, one of the most outstanding and, after a good while, most highly esteemed poets of 20th century Hungarian literature. He voted for both. Having a thorough knowledge of the Greek-Latin tradition, for him Modernity meant complete coexistence with it: “Such a respectful attitude to the past, such a loving preservation of the tradition, such conservatism is the greatest modernity. He only can be called modern who has experienced all, who carries in his mind the totality of the past, who is the pinnacle of his own times, because he unifies all ages in himself.” The stress always depended on the political situation. Neoclassicism or New Classicism was his reply to the new political and cultural phenomena of the 1920s–30s.

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