A Half Whistle from the ‘Five-Pronged Whistle’

Ethnic Hungarian Literary Life and Cultural Communication Efforts in Croatia

Abstract

In my study, I examine the role of mother-tongue literary culture in preserving the identity of ethnic Hungarians in Croatia. In doing so, first I review the Hungarian literary traditions of the present-day Croatia, and then I examine the relationship between the Hungarian mother tongue and Hungarian identity, relying on statistical data in relation to Hungarians in the Dráva region, Croatia. I suppose, that the possibilities of Hungarian mother tongue literary culture have a fundamental effect on the preservation of Hungarian consciousness, therefore I will review the most important literary and cultural institutions of the ethnic Hungarians in Croatia, which are of key importance from the point of mother tongue socialization’s view. Finally, I try to outline the new possibilities of the relationship between literature and community in the age of digitalization, arguing that the new media of global communication erase the physical limitations of living local and regional identities.