Specters of history: Hataron Tuli Magyarok and Hungarian party politics

This dissertation explores the interest that supporters of the political right in Hungary display toward the category of Hataron Tuli Magyarok, or Hungarians who come from beyond the border. Based on field work performed in Budapest, Hungary in 2006 and 2007, I argue that although supporters of the Hungarian political right situate their interest in Hataron Tuli Magyarok in the late socialist and early transition eras in Hungary, the resonances of their actions and symbols with those used during the interwar and World War II ear trouble their claim. Chapter 1 positions my claims and the trajectory of the dissertation in terms of the discrepancies I experienced between some of my interlocutors' public declarations about their interest in Hataron Tuli Magyarok and their more private statements. Chapter 2 critiques the scholarship around Hataron Tuli Magyarok and begins the process of positioning it as a cultural category in Hungary rather than as a question of the communities or identities of Hungarian speakers from beyond the border. Chapter 3 continues this process by explicitly linking Hataron Tuli Magyarok to the idea of the political within the post-socialist state. To do this, it considers how the various histories of the relationship between Hataron Tuli Magyarok and Hungary make this category culturally salient in various and contradictory ways. Chapter 4 then explores how supporters of the Hungarian political right position their interest in Hataron Tuli Magyarok in terms of its significance for Hungary's transition from a socialist to a democratic system. Finally, Chapter 5 challenges the narratives of supporters of the Hungarian political right by reflecting their elisions and demonstrating how these elisions become problematic when read through the lens of their actions and statements within everyday life.