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ABSTRACTS
THE OUTBREAK OF A PANDEMIC IN BARANYA
Eszter Hosszú
The Spanish flu was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.
Baranya County was hit by 3 waves of this epidemic between 1918 and 1920. In
my study, I aim to investigate how the people of Baranya County, local doctors,
and political and administrative leaders reacted to the appearance of the Span¬
ish flu. I would also like to analyse to what extent they took international expe¬
rience into account and if they had a concept for averting the epidemic threat
when they organised the defense. Today we can say that the goal of avoiding the
Spanish flu epidemic in Baranya was not achieved. During my research, I also
tried to reveal why this goal could not be realized under the conditions of that
time.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF LITERATURE AND SOCIETY: NATSUME SOSEKI
Mark Marsal
This article focuses on the relationship between literature and society. Besides,
it attempts to provide a literary-theoretical foundation for the use of the novel
as a source for social and historical studies. In this endeavour, it is necessary to
turn to hermeneutics and the relationship between fiction and reality, which in
this case, includes the theories of Hans-Georg Gadamer, E. D. Hirsch, Wolfgang
Iser, and Hayden White as the backbone of this paper. The role of literature (or
the novel) and society can be examined in several ways, and the relationship
between fiction and reality is not so straightforward, as it has been the subject
of debate for centuries, if not longer. Lastly, there is a discussion about the con¬
cept of literature applicable to the works and era of the Japanese writer Natsume
Söseki (1867-1916), since the aim of engaging in literary theory was to examine
how the analysis of Söseki’s novels can be applied to fields such as sociology,
history, or anthropology.
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