Writing for the Family Audience

Abstract

Családi Kör (1860–1880) was the leading Hungarian domestic magazine of the mid-19th period, which, under the editorship of the first Hungarian woman of letters Emília Kánya, played a major role in introducing the domestic readership to contemporary European literature and in discussing the struggle of women’s employment opportunities before a wider public. Critical studies have also suggested that it was edited and published under the influence of the German Gartenlaube (1853–1944), the journal credited with embedding the journal of domestic magazine in the broader regime of 19th century print culture. Based on a close reading of the two magazines’ coverage in its European cultural historical context, this chapter offers an account of the possible connections and affinities between the two periodicals, and argues that the Hungarian magazine was significantly more daring in its politics and more systematic in its pursuit of introducing the local audience to European literary trends and works.

Keywords

• hungarian domestic magazines
• családi kör
• gartenlaube
• e.marlitt
• women’s employment
• periodical culture in the 19th century