On the hegelian roots of Lukács's theory of realism

Vadim Shneyder

pp. 259-269

in: David Bakhurst, Ilja Kliger (eds), Hegel in Russia, Studies in East European Thought 65, 2013.

Abstract

This article attempts two things. First, it aims to reassess the literary criticism that Georg Lukács produced in the 1930s while he was living in the Soviet Union in light of his earlier, and much-esteemed, The theory of the novel. Second, in order to carry out this reassessment, it examines the place of Hegelian aesthetics in Lukács's theorization of realism in the 1930s criticism, in relation both to contemporary Soviet writings on the subject and to his own earlier, ostensibly Hegelian work. I argue that, at least in terms of the place of art in the historical dialectic, the later work is more consistent with Hegelian philosophy than The theory of the novel.

Cited authors

Lukács György