Rózsa G. Hajnóczy's Bengáli tűz ['Fire of Bengal']

In: Hungarian cultural studies: e-journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, Band 12, S. 65-77

Abstract

A Hungarian travel journal written by Rózsa G. Hajnóczy (1892-1944) in either the late 1930s or early 1940s, Bengáli tűz is a work that has gained acclaim among readers in both India and Bangladesh. In 1928, the author travelled to India while accompanying her husband, the famous Orientalist, Gyula Germanus (1884-1979), and she stayed there for three years while recording her personal experiences in journal entries which eventually provided the raw material for Bengáli tűz. In spite of having a very wide fan base of mainly female readers, Bengáli tűz is still not mentioned in the History of Hungarian Literature Lexicon, which raises the issue of why this work has not been included in the canon of Hungarian literature. Since some questions surround whether Hajnóczy actually wrote Bengáli tűz, I aim to explore the issues connected to the authorship of this work while examining it from a comparative cultural perspective via textual analysis. Hajnóczy's journal has an abundance of instances of interculturalism which make it relevant to current readers as well.