Abstract
In the spring of 1989 Carl Tighe applied to the British Council Specialist Tours Department for a research grant to go to Hungary to talk with writers about their work and their relationship to the state. By the time the tour happened in December 1990, communism had collapsed, the map of Europe had changed massively and the theme of the research was irrelevant. Instead of cancelling the visit he used it to talk to writers about the change to democracy and how it affected them. He heard writers debate the urgent need to re-think the Hungarian national identity, saw them abandon writing and leap into the new politics, and witnessed the sudden re-emergence of anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsy feeling as serious political strategies. Here he recounts his visit and draws attention to the development of these elements, in particular the growth of the radical nationalist party, Jobbik, and events during the 2009 European elections in Hungary.
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