Persistent Illusions: Visual Culture and Historical Memory in Interwar Hungary

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.

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Persistent Illusions: Visual Culture and Historical Memory in Interwar Hungary

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.

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Persistent Illusions: Visual Culture and Historical Memory in Interwar Hungary

Persistent Illusions: Visual Culture and Historical Memory in Interwar Hungary

by Nóra Veszprémi
Persistent Illusions: Visual Culture and Historical Memory in Interwar Hungary

Persistent Illusions: Visual Culture and Historical Memory in Interwar Hungary

by Nóra Veszprémi

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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781501782312
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication date: 07/15/2025
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 300
File size: 11 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Nóra Veszprémi is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies at the University of Birmingham and a Research Fellow at Masaryk University, Brno.

What People are Saying About This

Paul Hanebrink

Persistent Illusions is an impressive and original interpretation of visual culture in interwar Hungary. Nóra Veszprémi combines careful analysis of art and dramatic public spectacles with an authoritative command of the cultural and intellectual history of the period to completely reframe long-running debates about the power of collective historical memory.

James Koranyi

Veszprémi provides a remarkable exploration of art, representations of power, and memory in Hungary during the interwar period. The connections between art and modernism in Persistent Illusions reveal surprising synergies of the Hungarian right that defy our expectations of conservative interpretations and uses of art and modern technologies.

James T. Koranyi

Veszprémi provides a remarkable exploration of art, representations of power, and memory in Hungary during the interwar period. The connections between art and modernism in Persistent Illusions reveals surprising synergies of the Hungarian right that defy our expectations of conservative interpretations and uses of art and modern technologies.

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