Essays on Realism

Description

Originally published in the 1930s, these essays on realism, expressionism, and modernism in literature present Lukacs's side of the controversy among Marxist writers and critics now known as the Lukacs-Brecht debate. The book also includes an exchange of letters between Lukács, writing in exile in the Soviet Union, and the German Communist novelist, Anna Seghers, in which they discuss realism, the European literary heritage, and the situation of the artist in capitalist culture. Introduction Rodney Livingstone The Novels of Willi Brede [1931] 23 I. FOR DIALECTICS AS A LITERARY PRINCIPLE 2. AGAINST THE THEORY OF SPONTANEITY IN LITERATURE 'Tendency' or Partisanship? [ 1932] 33 Reportage or Portrayal? [ 1932] 45 I. CRITICAL REMARKS A PROPOS A NOVEL BY OTTWALT 45 2. A VIRTUE OF NECESSITY 63 Expressionism: its Significance and Decline [ 1934) 76 I. THE IDEOLOGY OF THE GERMAN INTELLIGENTSIA IN THE IMPERIALIST PERIOD 2. EXPRESSIONISM AND THE IDEOLOGY OF THE USPD 3. EXPRESSIONISM'S CREATIVE METHOD Marx and the Problem of Ideological Decay [1938] 114 A Correspondence with Anna Seghers [1938/9] 167 Anna Seghers, 28 June 1938 Georg Lukacs, 29 July 1938 Anna Seghers, February 1939 Georg Lukacs, 2 March 1939 Tribune or Bureaucrat? [1940] 198 I. THE GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE OF LENIN'S ANTITHESIS 2. BUREAUCRACY AS A BASIC FORM OF DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALIST CULTURE 3. TRAGEDY AND TRAGICOMEDY OF THE ARTIST UNDER CAPITALISM 4. THE ACTUALITY OF LENIN'S ANTITHESIS Notes 238 Name index 246