Persistent Illusions: Visual Culture and Historical Memory in Interwar Hungary

By: Nóra Veszprémi

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Synopsis: Persistent Illusions examines the visual representation of history in interwar Hungary, where interpretations of the past were suffused with references to the country's recent territorial loss. In these images of history, nineteenth-century themes and motifs took on new forms to promote twentieth-century political ideas through the new media of modernity.Nóra Veszprémi illustrates how modernization created resilient imagery that persists in cultural memory through a wide range of paintings, prints, stamps, public spectacles, and monuments. In doing so, she challenges the assumption that the official culture of the right-wing, authoritarian regime of Admiral Miklós Horthy was characterized by a superficial revival of historical styles. Instead, she argues that the regime drew on history in complex, modern ways that disseminated motifs and ideological frameworks across political divides. By analyzing how ideology shapes enduring concepts of the past through the evocative power of images, Persistent Illusions encourages the reader to critically examine the legacies of interwar ideas and imagery in the present day.