Academic Year 2009/2010, Spring

Analysis of Escape-Narratives

(Elaboration of the method of analysis of the interviews carried out in the framework of the „Project Escape”)

Instructors: György Csepeli-Antal Örkény

Access: http://www.socio.mta/hu A huszadik század hangja.

Aim of the course

The course aims at enabling the students to analyse the interviews carried out in the past two decades in the framework of the „Project Escape” . The distinctive feature of the escape-narratives is the happy ending that is in striking contrast with structure of narratives generated by the history of the 20th century in Hungary. Escapes, morover, are at the crossroads of the individual and collective streams of history. Each student will be responsible for one interview. He/she is obliged to type the text which will be put ont he video as a subtitle. The output of the course will be the creation of a general matrix of analysis of different kinds of narratives on escape.

Steps of the work

1. A document titled „Vita” will be prepared in case of each subject. This document will consist of all relevant information concerning the life of the subject before and after the events of the escape narrated by him/herself. Internet links will make to understand the course of life of the person concerned.

2. The story of the escape will be recorded as a script. Social and physical space of the person will be reconstructed using internet resources.

3. In order to carry out meta-analysis of the texts of interviews on escape an „encyclopedia of escape” will be created. This encyclopedia contains all the necessary motifs of escape-narratives. Once it has been done, the texts of the interviews can be dealt with as database.

Schedule

1. History and life story. (the collective and individual embedment of the narratives on escape)

2. The history of Hungary int he 20th century (dictatorships)

3. Perpetrators, victims, bystanders

4. Jehuda Schwartz (Auschwitz)

5. Lebovics Imre (1944, wartime labor service)

6. Heller Ágnes (Budapest, German occupation, Arrow Cross terror)

7. Hanák Katalin (Budapest, German occupation, Arrow Cross terror)

8. Hanák Péter (1942-44, wartime labor service)

9. Kardos G. György (1944, wartime labor service, Bor)

10. Eta (deportation of Hungarian born Germans in 1945)

11. Szüts-néni (1952,Communist concentration camp, Recsk)

12. Király Béla (1956, revolution)

13. Mécs Imre (1956, revolution)

14. Vári Attila (1985, Romania)

15. Bicskei István 1992 (Jugoslavia, civil war)

Aspects of the meta-analysis

1. Frame of the narrative applied by the subject

Romantic involvement

Ironic distance

Epic neutralitiy

Change of the viewpoints: dramatic rehearsal

Absurd

2. Ethical dilemmas

Conscience of the survivor. Self-presentation or self-discolsure. Voyeurism of the interviewer.

3. Encyclopedia of Escape

Helpers, helping

Perpetrators (persecutors)

Victims

Luck

Fear and anxiety

Rebellion

Being smart

Banalíty of death

4. Key-words of the analysis of the individual interviews

Jehuda Schwartz (Auschwitz)

„Kein Warum”

Lebovics Imre (labor servide in 1944)

„Helpers, helping”

Heller Ágnes (Budapest, German occupation, Arrow Cross terror)

The will to survive, conscience of the survivor

Hanák Katalin (Budapest, German occupation, Arrow Cross terror)

Perpetrators, the role of luck in the escape

Hanák Péter (1942-44, wartime labor service )

Adventures

Kardos G. György (1944, labor service, Camp Bor)

Humor and irony

Aunt Eta

Adventures

Aunt Szüts (1952,Camp Recsk)

Absurd

Király Béla (1956, revolution)

„Dichtung und Warheit”

Mécs Imre (1956, revolution, retributions)

Self-presentation

Vári Attila (1985, Romania)

Everyday suffering, national minorty existence

Bicskei István 1992 (Jugoszlávia)

Actor’s roles