„Furtsa epopeák”

Csokonai’s Treatise on Epopeia, written for a vague purpose, is surprisingly close to the modern approach taken in Ritchie Robertson’s monograph Mock-Epic Poetry from Pope to Heine. Neither Csokonai nor Robertson considers the serious and parodic versions of the epic as a distinct tradition, as heroic epics also contain parodic elements, and mock-epic poetry is not really a travesty of the heroic epic, but – in Aristotelian terms – a pseudo-heroic, pseudoactionary or pseudo-narrative (mock-heroic, mock-actionary or mock-narrative) discourse. Hence the canon-historical misconception – to which, of course, Csokonai himself falls victim in the Treatise on Epopeia – that only the genres belonging to the “high-brow”, heroic epic can be considered classics of national literature. But Csokonai’s poetic practice shows otherwise. Although the reception of Csokonai may see biographical reasons for this, reasons for the fragmentary nature of his oeuvre, in fact it may seem that Csokonai regarded an ironic, satirical version of the double epic tradition as his poetic ideal. At the end of this paper, I argue that in his poetic procedures of what Csokonai calls the „furtsa epopea” – which involve heroes and literary figures, and which can be linked to plot and narrative forms – female discourses, female focus, or narrative positions empathic with female perspectives also play a prominent role in most cases. This is also evident in Csokonai’s poem Dorottya.