Silencing: Soft and Self-Censorship. The Case of Hungarian Performing Arts.

Authors

  • Andrea Tompa Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37130/mqme6174

Keywords:

soft censorship, self-censorship, direct political intervention in theatre, Hungarian Performing Arts

Abstract

The article deals with the theoretical and pragmatic questions of soft censorship and self-censorship in contemporary Hungarian performing arts, i.e. the less visible forms of indirect censorship. The article focuses on practices of artistic directors, theater leadership, and the different intimidating gestures of the state representatives and media, from denunciatory articles, to hearings of artistic directors and other forms of control. The article analyzes forms of ideological pressure (through grant applications). The lack of a direct critical language in theater is put into both historical and contemporary light as part of soft censorship. The Hungarian metoo movement is being also silenced as part of the complex phenomena of soft censorship, as the privatization of Hungarian Theater and Film Academy.

Author Biography

  • Andrea Tompa, Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Andrea Tompa PhD is a Hungarian theatre critic, researcher and writer born in Romania, living in the past three decades in Hungary. She studied Russian literature in Budapest, Hungary, worked as a theatre critic and editor, and is an associate professor at the Hungarian Theater Department of Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania. Since 2009 to 2016 she was the president of the Hungarian Theatre Critics’ Association. She is also the author of four novels.

References

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Herczog, Noémi (2017) Feljelentő színikritika a Kádár-korban (Denunciatory criticism in the Kádár era). PhD thesis. Színház – és Filmművészeti Egyetem.

Humán Platform (ed.)(2020) Hungary turns its back on Europe. Dismanteling culture, education, science and the media in Hungary 2010-2019. [no publisher].

Jászay, Tamás, (2013) ’Finita la Commedia: The Debilitation of Hungarian Independent Theatre (Hungary)’, Critical Stages, June 2013: Issue No 8.

Jones, Derek (2001) Censorship: A World Encyclopedia Censorship. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.

Polyák, G. (2019) ’Media in Hungary: Three Pillars of an Illiberal Democracy’ in Połońska E., Beckett C. (eds) Public Service Broadcasting and Media Systems in Troubled European Democracies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Polyák, Gábor, Ágnes, Urbán (2016) ’Az elhalkítás eszközei. Politikai beavatkozások a médiapiac és a nyilvánosság működésébe’, Médiakutató17. évf. 3-4. sz. (2016. ősz-tél)

Schimpfössl, Elisabeth, Yablokov, Ilya (2020) ’Post-Socialist Self-Censorship: Russia, Hungary and Latvia’, European Journal of Communication. Vol 35, Issue 1, 2020.

Tompa, Andrea (2016) ’Du hast gerufen, geliebter Führer!’, Theater Heute, 2016 July No. 7

Tompa, Andrea (2017) ’And the Winner Is... Appointing Artistic Directors in Hungary’, Polish Theatre Journal, 1-2(3-4).

Tompa, Andrea (2020) Interview with István Szabó. [In the archive of the author].

Tompa, Andrea (2021a) interview with Boróka Parászka. [in the archive of the author].

Tompa, Andrea (2021b) interview with Gábor Máté. [in the archive of the author].

Tompa, Andrea (2021c) Interview with Gábor Polyák. [In the archive of the author]. Online References:

trtworld.com (2019) Hungary passes ‘Culture Law’, prompting fears of censorship [online]. Available at: https:// www.trtworld.com/magazine/hungary-passes-culture-law-prompting-fears-of-censorship-32231 (Accessed: 05 May 2021)

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Published

2021-06-10

How to Cite

Tompa, A. (2021). Silencing: Soft and Self-Censorship. The Case of Hungarian Performing Arts. CONCEPT, 22(1), 50-60. https://doi.org/10.37130/mqme6174