‘But not for him. Just by him’: Hungarian landscapes and women’s time in the short fiction of Anna T. Szabó and Krisztina Tóth

Hurley, Ursula; Naray, Szilvi

Abstract

Contemporary Hungarian women writers use the short form as a feminist intervention in current gender politics. Creating space in which to explore alternatives to patriarchal cultures and illiberal political movements, they deploy physical and imaginary landscapes to critique the past and present of embodied feminine experience. Our comparison of two short stories, ‘Moon and Palm’ (2016) by Anna T. Szabó (1972–present) and ‘Black Snowman’ (2006) by Krisztina Tóth (1967–present) intersects their complex temporalities with traditions of folklore and tale-telling to show how they turn a ‘feminine form’ into a feminist practice.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 24, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Mar 10, 2025
• Publication Date: Mar 10, 2025
• Deposit Date: Mar 11, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 11, 2026
• Journal: Short Fiction in Theory & Practice
• Print ISSN: 2043-0701
• Publisher: Intellect
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 235-253
• ISBN: 2043-0701
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/fict_00109_1
• Keywords: contemporary short fiction; feminist theory; gender equality; Hungarian short story; Julia Kristeva; life on land; literary cartography; women writers
• Publisher URL: https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/fict_00109_1