36. évfolyam, 1990. 5-6. szám

Archívum

The findings and some problems of research into the bibliographies of literary scholarship.

LÁNG József

Bibliographic processing and publication in the field of literary scholarship were till the middle of this century decisively of current nature. The first retrospective bibliographic venture was a hidden bibliography in Jeno Pintér's history of Hungarian literature published in the period 1930 to 1941. The plans of the retrospective bibliography were born already in 1957, still the first volume of the series (on the history of Hungarian literature from the start to 1772 ) was published in 1972 only. The volume on the period 1772-1848 was published in 1975. Another two volumes were published in 1982 and 1989 with bibliographic data on the work of authors of the period 1905-1945. The period between 1849-1905 is now being processed. The annual bibliographies of articles on literary history were compiled on ongoing basis. They were published till 1976 in the Journal “Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények", in the period between 1976 and 1983 - as individual volumes by the National Széchényi Library. Unfortunately, since then the National Széchényi Library has ceased their publication for financial considerations. From among the bibliographies already prepared the following are worth mentioning: that of populist authors, of writings on Hungarian literature published in the neighbouring countries, and some outstanding author bibliographies (Ady, Géza Csáth, Kazinczy, Krúdy, Móricz). The author is of the opinion that the bibliography of literary scholarship is oriented too much towards special literature and neglects textological research. To avoid this, the mapping of Hungarian journals publishing literary texts too has started. The search for anthologies and collections on literary scholarship has been begun with a similar aim. The author blames the special bibliographies for covering a too narrow range of sources. Research is uncoordinated, methods are heterogeneous, the time taken by editing and printing is too long. (pp. 516-522)

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Észrevételek