The grand lady of Dutch Studies in Hungary

Judit Gera was born on 2 May 1954. She studied Hungarian and English, and then Dutch at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. Between 1977 and 1984 she worked as an editor and publisher's reader at the Magvető Publishing House. From the late 1970s she translated literary works and scientific texts into Hungarian, mainly from Dutch. In 1982, she returned to the then Department of Germanic and Romanic Studies at the ELTE to teach literature to students of Dutch. In 1991 she defended her thesis on Van de koele meren des doods by Frederik van Eeden in International Context. In 2000 she defended her habilitation work, titled Interrelations between Dutch Literature and Painting, the results of which were published in the same year. She was appointed professor of Dutch Studies in 2005. For 23 years, from 1995 to 2018, she was head of the Department of Dutch Studies at ELTE.

Judit Gera has been doing extensive research in the field of Dutch-speaking culture. The focus of her interest is modern literature, which she often approaches from an interartistic perspective, for instance in combination with visual art and film. She led four successful research projects, which resulted in several monographs, collections of essays and textbooks. Many of her research and teaching activities are devoted to critique of ideology. In 2001 her book Van een afstand. Multatuli's Max Havelaar tegendraads gelezen [From a distance. Multatuli's Max Havelaar read against the grain] appeared. In 2012, her collected articles were published in Hungarian, in 2016 in English under the title Structures of Subjugation in Dutch Literature. In 2022, her book Plezier in Poëzie [Pleasure in Poetry] was published, which she co-wrote with Jos Kleemans. In addition, more than 200 articles, studies, reviews and edited works by Judit Gera have been published in Hungary and abroad. 
Between 2015 and 2022 researchers at the ELTE and the other two Departments of Dutch Studies in Hungary, the Debrecen University and the Károli Protestant University collaborated in the writing of a large-scale literary history. The first Hungarian literary history of Dutch, A holland nyelvű irodalom története [The History of Dutch Literature] was published in spring 2022. This important handbook of Dutch Studies was edited, and to a large extent written by Judit Gera, Gábor Pusztai, Orsolya Réthelyi and Anikó Daróczi. This project was supported by the Dutch Language Union.
The relationship between literature, cultural transmission and mediators has been in the focus of Judit Gera's scientific interest in recent years. She was an active participant in several international research projects that investigated the distribution of Dutch literature. She supported the NWO-FWO project Eastbound CODL as a scientific advisor. She is a member of the Dutch Literary Society (Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde) and is on the editorial board of several professional journals. Together with Orsolya Réthelyi she initiated and organises the Akárki / Elckerlijc Literary Evenings. Twice a year the organisers invite a small group of diverse Hungarian readers and the translator to a literary book-shop café in Budapest to discuss a volume (novel, non-fiction, poetry) recently translated from Dutch. Often the Dutch/Flemish author is invited to participate and is also interviewed.
An important part of Judit Gera's research is directly related to teaching. The most striking example of this is the textbook Inleiding literatuurgeschiedenis voor de internationale neerlandistiek [Introduction to the History of Dutch Literature for International Students] (2010), which she wrote in collaboration with her friend and colleague Dr A. Agnes Sneller, former professor at the Károli Protestant University. Her teaching activities have shaped the field of Dutch Studies in Hungary to a significant extent: most of the lecturers now teaching in the various Dutch Studies departments in Hungary were once her students. As a member of the Doctoral School of Literature at the ELTE, she has supervised four PhD students. Many of her students later found work in the private sector, and a number of former students continued their studies in The Netherlands and Belgium or found work there. These people are connected to the ELTE by the values of the Dutch Department: openness, high standards, a critical attitude and a deep interest in Dutch-speaking cultures. Judit Gera played and still plays a decisive role in the creation and passing on of these values.

Judit Gera is also one of the most prolific literary translators from the Dutch language in Hungary. She has translated works by Willem Elsschot, Hella S. Haasse, Marga Minco, Thomas Rosenboom and Jan Wolkers, among others. At Gondolat Publishers, she edited the series 'Akcentusok Holland Nyelvű Irodalom' [Accents in Dutch Literature]. Her oeuvre as a literary translator was recognised by the Kingdom of the Netherlands with the Martinus Nijhoff Prize in 2001. In 1999 she was awarded a knighthood in the Order of Orange-Nassau for the dissemination and promotion of Dutch culture in Hungary. To this day, she translates literature from Dutch for various Hungarian publishers. #Prizes