Literary historian, translator. He worked for the Institute of Literature of the Hungarian Academic of Sciences. He specialized in the comparative studies of Eastern European literatures. He is the founding father in Hungary of the Baltic studies. In 1968-69 he participated in the preliminary works of the issuing of a new periodical which was prohibited. He was silenced for five years and was considered among those critical to the party. He took part in the editing of the samizdat Máshonnan Beszélő. He was editor of the literary periodical 2000.