The Dramatic Language of Csokonai

in the Comic Epic Dorottya vagyis a dámák diadalma a Fársángon (Dorottya or the Triumph of the Ladies at the Carnival)

Abstract

The language of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz’s plays is complicated by a number of allusions, most of which can only be understood in the period in which they were written; this also poses a serious interpretative challenge for the staging. The poet tries to help with explanations in footnotes (e.g. folk custom, regional word, word for language reform, foreign word, scientific notion, geographical name). All of this provides a wealth of cultural history benefits, and the poet regularly refers to these in his notes, while others must be investigated by us, the descendants (this Dorottya analysis provides a few examples). The uniqueness of Csokonai’s style, its modernity and its validity to this day, is manifested in: the playful, joyful lightness of the Rococo; its folkloricism; its folk humour (outspokenness), its treatment of taboo subjects (emancipation, sexuality); its support for national feeling and language reform. Csokonai’s drama poetry language is colourful and varied.