hulit1-1, Exercise 2: Testing a myth

Model answer (one possible choice: "Communism silenced Hungarian literature"; check):

1. Define the claim: silenced when, and in what sense? Banned, unpublished, or unable to say certain things?
2. Find what was banned: authors and books that could not be published, and for how long, in the early 1950s and after 1956 (check the periods).
3. Find what was published: the works of writers such as Orkeny, Ottlik and Magda Szabo, many of which appeared in Hungary under the system (Chapter 7).
4. Find the workarounds: indirect language, allegory, the underground and samizdat, and manuscripts that reached the West.
5. Compare periods: the early 1950s were far harsher than the 1970s and 1980s, so one verdict cannot cover all.
6. Sources: literary histories, publishers' lists, records of censorship, and writers' own accounts, which are themselves claims to test.

Likely result: control was severe at times and real throughout, but literature was not simply silenced, and the picture differs by period.