Jansenisms and Literature in Central Europe

From May 11 to 15, 2022, an colloque international entitled Jansenisms and Literature in Central Europe was held in Budapest. The conference was organized by Mr Gábor Tüskés, a literary historian specializing in comparative literature, religious literature and the history of iconography in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It brought together about 30 specialists and researchers in literature and the Jansenist movement from six countries.

What is interesting for the history of Yerres is the presence of Prince Francis II Rákóczi, who made a retreat among the Camaldolese Fathers from 1715 to 1717. Some traces of his presence can be found in archival documents, some of which are still unexplored. The various communications of this colloquium have revealed a lesser known facet of the Prince, that of the writer and thinker. The man who is today considered by Hungary as its national hero, developed in various works, written in French and Latin, ideas close to Port-Royal-des-Champs. The complex personality of Rákóczi is also better approached through studies of his Confessions and Memoirs, his commentaries on Saint Augustine, his autobiography, the story of his childhood, etc. This research, which gives an important place to Francis II Rákóczi, is compared with other works of his time, both in France and in Central Europe.

"The main purpose of our conference is to explore how Jansenism was transmitted into the literatures of Central Europe and how it shaped the concept of literature. We will explore how and by whom translators, publishers, and patrons of Jansenist ideas, texts, and readings arrived in this region. We want to ask how, to what extent, in what form and with what transfers these ideas impacted literature. Furthermore, we aspire to place Jansenist-influenced moralist and anthropological discourses in a new perspective, emphasizing their connections to literary and cultural history, aesthetics, and the history of ideas."

The proceedings will be published in 2023 in French, English and German by the publisher Peter Lang.

Une vidéo du colloque:

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Recently published: Francis II Rákóczi, Confession of a Sinner.Francis II Rákóczi, Confession of a Sinner..


Translated from the Latin by Chrysostome Jourdain.
Critical edition with introduction and notes edited by Gábor Tüskés.
Foreword by Jean Garapon.
Honoré Champion 2020
(Library of Central European Studies)