Is contemporary Hungarian literature living through a golden age or will the first decade of our century later be seen as grey, uneventful years? Are we on an exciting road, connecting what preceded it with what is yet to come, or are we simply rolling along a boring detour? Can we in all conscience, to quote the title of a volume of short stories by Géza Ottlik, say that "it's all there"? The question is whether the current Hungarian literary market is a soundly structured market where consumers can locate products that match their tastes, or whether contemporary Hungarian literature has left readers to their own devices.
It is possible to argue for both cases. One might, perhaps, claim that maybe contemporary Hungarian literature has never been so kaleidoscopic, so richly diverse, never before have there been so many literary magazines, that Hungarian authors, even those of the second rank, are receiving serious attention abroad. Equally one might insist that readers simply do not perceive that diversity, because literature has lost its significance to society; the plethora of magazines is actually a sign of subsidised vegetating for want of a readership that is capable of sustaining it. There is effectively no competition between them that would be able to push standards up; while the front rank of Hungarian literature is indeed coming up with work of consistently high standard, it lacks the support of a reliable second (let alone third or fourth) echelon.
Those who lean to a golden age, however, have the more straightforward job. All they have to do is hold up a few recent works by writers who may not (as yet?) have attained the internationally acknowledged front rank but whom it would be well worth paying attention to—works by, say, Zoltán András Bán, Balázs Szálinger, János Lackfi and András Petőcz.

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Tibor Bárány
is a literary critic.