In 1991 a survey was carried out among the adult popula
tion of Hungarian nationality in Transylvania (Rumania), Csal
lóköz (Zitny Ostrov; Southern Slovakia), and in Hungary. 460 questionnaires were filled out in people’s homes. In all the three countries small towns with 20-30 thousand inhabitants and two villages had been selected as the spots of the investigation.
The survey was made in communities where the Hungarian ethnic group was in majority. W e must, of course, be aware that these regions have got a potential to perform better in the usage of the Hungarian language, in schooling in the mother tongue, in the reading culture, than do those where Hungarians live disper- sedly.
As regards the number of children, the sample group inter
viewed in Transylvania took the lead; meanwhile the Slovakian group took the lead so far as the convenience of their flats/houses are concerned, followed by Hungary, and Transylvania was lag
ging far behind.
Investigating the intragenerational mobility of the 460 adults interviewed, i.e. the social realignment as compared to the original occupation, we found that the interviewees in Hungary showed the greatest mobility. The minority position seems to hinder the opportunities of social progress.
W e compiled a list of various requirements on what should be given to children as provisions for their future life, what they should learn in the paternal home. The interviewees had to select
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from this list the requirement which they considered the most important.
The values selected by respondents in Hungary seem to be more pragm atic, closer to everyday life and utilitarianism than those selected in the other two regions, and do not exclude (mainly practically oriented) information needs either.
Among Hungarians living in Slovakia the outlines of a middle-class value system were unfolding, in which the desire of self-assertion is associated with considerable interest in culture and a certain extent of self-esteem.
The value system of respondents representing Transylva
nia (Rumania), including the desire to work, readiness to adapt and accommodate oneself, considerable affinity towards reading culture, strong affinity towards religion; on the other hand: rela
tively weak desire to gain knowledge and underdeveloped toler
ance may be characterized as a traditional, "pre-modem" world of values, accepting even social mimicry under the pressure of the minority status.
The ratio of those having not been baptized was the lowest among those interviewed in Transylvania. The total proportion of those religious either according to the teaching of churches or
"in their own way7' was 60% in the Hungarian sample group, 56%
in Slovakia. It was, however, very high in Transylvania: 82%;
Hungarians living there preceded the other two regions consider
ably, especially in the field of "clerical" religiousness.
We asked the interviewees the question: * does it
mean fo r you to be HungarianIt was an open question, the answers to which were analyzed in the dimension of emotional
attitude. A negativistic approach to the image of being Hunga
rian (aversion, approaching from associated negative experi
ence) was met almost exclusively in Hungary. Indifference was shown to the national status twice as many times in Hungary as in e.g. Transylvania. The feeling o f belonging to somewhere was a typical answer of the inhabitants of Hungary, too. The response type accepting Hungarian nationality spite o f difficulties, at
the cost of struggle occurred in the greatest proportion in Transylvania (with Hungarians living in Rumania). In Slovakia (in Csallóköz) a less heroic version of national identity but also accepting Hungarian nationality - with positive feelings - was dominating.
Another question related to Hungarian national identity regarded the image of the future: * do you see the distant future o f HungariansTHungarians living in Slovakia were
found to be the most optimistic, they were followed closely by Transylvanians, and - falling much behind - by Hungarians who are the most pessimistic.
W e found in all the three regions that behind the extreme pessimism there is a reading behaviour in which books are hardly or not read, while the taste of those reading is oriented toward entertaining literature (light reading). The chance of optimism - perhaps somewhat surprisingly - has increased together with the extent of reading frequency (except for Hungary), and with the rise in the taste level.
Describing the survey we mentioned already that we had selected locations where the mother tongue of the majority of the population is Hungarian. It cannot be therefore surprising that almost 9/10 of the respondents in Slovakia and Transylvania speak mostly Hungarian at their workplaces, in shops and of
fices, in the family and among friends.
The issue of the language of education is far more complex than the everyday use of the language. The primary (elementary) school was accomplished in their mother tongue by 9/10 of the respondents in Slovakia, and by 95% in Transylvania. In the schools of higher level the situation was already worse: among the interviewees only 2/3 of those with vocational training and 77% of the one-time students of secondary schools (grammar schools) could pursue their studies in Hungarian. The graduates of colleges and universities are in the worst situation: only 16%
of them could follow their studies in Hungarian.
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It is easy for anyone to become a blue-collar worker in one’s mother tongue (at least in regions where Hungarians are in a majority) but to continue one's studies, to progress, it is inevitable to speak the language of the country's majority. This proletariz- ation seems for the time being to be a normal concomitant of minority status in East-Central Europe.
There are substantial differences in the structure o f cultu
ral activities in the three regions. The list of activities in Hungary is led by television and the other telecommunication media. The list in Slovakia starts with reading newspapers; reading fiction occupies the second place. In Transylvania fiction came up al
ready to the first place. The lists in Transylvania and Slovakia indicate a relatively high status of reading, while the structure of activities in Hungary is illustrative of the dominance of audiovis
ual culture.
Daily papers and monthly magazines are least read in Hun
gary, weeklies in Transylvania, Slovakia takes the first place in the reading of all the three categories (dailies, weeklies, month
lies).
The percentage of those not reading books was the highest in the Hungarian sample, however, the differences are not dra
matic at all. They are greater as far as readers’ interest and taste are concerned. Readers’ interests (and let us add: cultural profile) in the various regions differ considerably. In the Hungarian re
gion a rather commercialized mixture of thrillers, emotional love stories and adventure novels was strongly preferred together with non-fiction of a technological nature. In the two regions outside Hungary historical subjects and fiction ranked before commercialized literature (especially in Transylvania where both categories were mentioned most frequently); the same holds true for biography which had not been among the first five types of reading in the Hungarian list. Among the Hungarians living outside Hungary fiction seems to be more greatly esteemed, it is considered in East-Central Europe - traditionally - as the master of living (or rather that of surviving) and political action.
As regards the distribution of readings according to their date o f writing, in Hungary recent works (written during the 10-15 years preceding the survey) are coming to the fore, and the literature of the last century (and older literature) is being driven to the background. Both processes appear to a much smaller ex
tent in the two survey regions outside Hungary: there, as a rule, books written somewhat earlier are read.
Distribution according to the ’ nationality testifies that about 50% of books read in Hungary, Slovakia and Transyl
vania was written by Hungarian authors. The interest in West- em-European literature seems - unfortunately - to be decreasing, while the interest in American literature has considerably in
creased. This phenomenon is the least perceivable in Transylva
nia. To sum up, isolation makes Transylvania not only more con
servative, but it also saves it from extensive Americanization and the associated phenomena of commercialization.
If we take style as the structuring principle of the reading material we find that in Hungary the ratio of romantic, 19th and 20th century classical realist and valuable modem works is de
creasing, and that of entertaining literature is increasing. These trends are not at all or hardly perceivable outside Hungary: the interest in classics is much greater in Slovakia and is especially high among Hungarians living in Transylvania; light reading and best-sellers are the most popular in Hungary, followed - with a substantial difference - by Slovakia, and finally, Transylvania.
Consequently, the most commercialized region is Hungary, the least commercialized one is Transylvania, an island in many re
spects.
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