ON LITERARY EXHIBITIONS

After giving a short overview of the tradition of Hungarian literary museology, investigated are some of the possibilities and problems involved in the genre of literary exhibition, with the help of two examples (Women writers in Hungarian literature, 1995; Writers in the 1956 revolution, 2006). A key issue of literary exhibitions is the question of how texts can be visualised, how the author’s intentions can be captured in images. It is a complex procedure, not a mere juxtaposition of texts and illustrations, but a symbolic representation of a text’s content, with photographs, manuscripts and objects appearing as part of the symbolic image. This enables the viewer to become involved with more of his/her senses in a space of installation. The creation of a symbolic system is the main task of the curator, and in order to achieve this, a special work method is needed where the collection and selection of the material is inseparable from the design of the installation