Child-Shaped Cats, Talking Hats, Jiggly Wurrms: The Joys of Un/doing Language and the Comfort of Interpretive Communities in Hungarian Nonsense Children's Literature

Abstract: This article explores Hungarian nonsense children's literature through key works by Ervin Lázár, István Csukás, and András Dániel. It argues that these tales draw from a uniquely Hungarian nonsense tradition rooted in the nineteenth-century language reform movement and twentieth-century halandzsa (gibberish constructed language) experiments, characterized by inventive neologisms, playful subversions of meaning, and linguistic ingenuity. Through psycholinguistically informed narratological lenses, the article reveals how nonsense offers a means to resist authority by allowing freedom of expression and imaginative identity play, while also fostering empathy, solidarity, and critical literacy. It highlights how absurd characters and storyworlds may create interpretive communities, offering readers joyful linguistic engagement, a sense of democratic liberation, and therapeutic responses to alienation—thereby framing nonsense as a socially transformative and philosophically rich genre.