Enikő Bollobás (born June 19,őBollobá 1952 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian literary scholar, professor at the School of English and American Studies of the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She is a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Life and work
Bollobás has written seven books on literature as well as numerous cultural and critical articles. A graduate of ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University), she has been affiliated with this school (as associate professor, later professor) since 1990, when she co-founded the Department of American Studies with two colleagues, Zoltán Kövecses and Gyula Kodolányi.
On several occasions she was visiting professor and visiting scholar in the U.S (University of Oregon, Eugene; University of Iowa; University of California, San Diego). She has been invited to speak at various universities, including Cambridge University (England), Yale, Berkeley, Stanford, Georgetown, and George Washington University.
Her research and publication fields include American literature and culture, Hungarian literature, Women's studies/gender studies, Jewish studies, social issues.
Recipient of several awards in recognition of her scholarly achievement, Bollobás has been awarded the HUSSE Best Book Award (for her History of American Literature), the László Országh Prize for lifetime achievement, the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic, and the Albert Szent-Györgyi Prize.
Political activities
During the 1980s, Ms. Bollobás was active in the political opposition. For her participation in human and minority rights movements in Transylvania, Romanian authorities permanently expelled her from Ceauşescu's Romania in 1982; this step was instantly backed by the Hungarian authorities, who withdrew even her “red passport” (valid to Warsaw Pact countries). As part of her commitment to human rights, in 1989 she founded the Szeged-based political discussion group Hungarian Feminists, the first non-communist organization to address women's issues.
Public service
After the regime change Ms. Bollobás worked in government administration: as deputy chief of mission and chargé d'affaires at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and as director of the Department of Atlantic, Northern European, and Israeli Affairs of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry in Budapest. She served as vice chair and secretary general (1992–1996) of the Hungarian Atlantic Council, lobbying at the time for Hungary's NATO membership.
Selected publications
Books
Her professional interests range from theories of modernism and postmodernism, American modern and postmodern literatures, the traditions of experimentation and avant-garde, and free verse prosodies to post-deconstruction theories, feminist theory and criticism, American studies theories. She has published seven books on American literature: Az amerikai irodalom rövid története [A concise history of American literature] (Budapest: Osiris, 2015) Vendégünk a végtelenből – Emily Dickinson költészete [Our visitor from infinitude—Emily Dickinson’s poetry] (Budapest: Balassi, 2015) * see also Egy képlet nyomában – Karakterelemzések az amerikai és a magyar irodalomból [In Search of a Formula—Analyzing American and Hungarian Literary Characters] (Budapest: Balassi, 2012) They Aren't, Until I Call Them — On Doing Things with Words in Literature (Frankfurt am Main-Berlin-Bern-Bruxelles-New York-Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010) Az amerikai irodalom története [A History of American Literature] (Budapest: Osiris, 2005) Charles Olson (New York: Twayne, 1992) Tradition and Innovation in American Free Verse (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1986).