BIO
Csaba Csapó was born in 1965 as a second child of jurist parents.
Now he lives in Budapest.
Studies
Csaba Csapó attended Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences where he studied Latin, Ancient Greek, and Philosophy. Later he obtained his M.A. degree in English Language and Literature. In 2001, as a recipient of a national postgradual grant, he carried out his Ph.D. studies at the Doctoral School of Literature at Eötvös Loránd University.
His Dissertation
He wrote his doctoral dissertation under the title “The Dramaturgical Innovations in the Late Plays of Tennessee Williams” which he defended in 2011.
Literary Translation
He began doing literary translations when he was a university student and has been translating prose, poetry and drama from the languages he can read and speak fluently. He received a national literary translator prize for his translation of the postmodern drama Hamlet Machine by German Heiner Müller. This drama translation was published by Magyar Napló Kiadó (Hungarian Journal Publisher) in a book entitled Hamlet Machine.
Teaching Practice
His teaching experience spans more than two decades; taught languages, culture and literature in different language schools and secondary schools. During this period, he participated in creating several secondary school textbooks as an official expert of school books at the National Institute for Education. Since 2001, he has been teaching English and American literature at the Department of English and American Studies, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.
Publications
He has published scholarly papers, articles, reviews on a regular basis since 2000. In Hungary, he was the first to launch an article for a scholarly debate on gay and lesbian literary criticism on the columns of Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature); this article of his attracted a significant attention and made his name well-known as a theoretician. In 2005, he participated in a book project started by the professors of the University of Delaware, to publish a book on the African American writer, James Baldwin. He wrote a chapter in the book on Baldwin’s first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and the book was published in the United States by Peter Lang Verlag. The topic of his publications is manifold; he writes on American and European novels, drama, poetry – classics and contemporary literature alike. Furthermore, he publishes papers on art, music, opera, as well as Buddhist philosophy.
Conferences
Since 2002 he regularly takes part in conferences in Hungary and abroad providing conference talks and lectures. The topic of his conference talks is mostly related to his publications but he also gives lectures on his wider research areas.
Foreign Languages
He has an extraordinary talent in learning and a marvellous command of foreign languages. He reads well in Ancient Greek and Latin; he reads, writes, and speaks fluently in English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish, Modern Greek, and Mandarin Chinese.
Interests
He is interested in many things, such as problems within the scholarly fields of philosophy and literary theory, critical theories, questions on Aesthetics and art, theatre, opera, classical music, theory as well as philosophy of music.
Scholarly Research
His scholarly research is carried out within the framework of his interests. On the field of various critical paradigms, he is not committed to any “isms” or schools. He has deepened his knowledge mainly in the following topics:
- • literary theory, theories of art, critical theories
- • the theory and practice of literary translations
- • Theatre Studies and History of Drama
- • History of Opera, Aesthetics of Dramatic Theatre and Opera
- • The application of narratology, deconstruction, and gender studies in Aesthetics of Music
At the moment he is working on the research of the poetry of Constantine Cavafy; more precisely, on the effect of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood on Cavafy’s poetry.
