The Reviewer and the Poet

Abstract

Half essay, half dramatic monologue – in which I respond to Kölcsey’s criticism in the first person, in the name of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, reviving his style to the best of my ability. The result is a counter-review by a young but self-respecting personality, aware of the value of his own accomplishments, full of anger and mocking play, following the structure of the original critique and arguing against it point by point. In its argumentation and linguistic phrases, it is emphatically not only intended as fiction, but I have hidden as many original quotations from Csokonai in it as I could: ideas on the one hand, and unique images and metaphors on the other.