Synopses & Reviews
Georg Lukács was one of the most controversial Marxist philosophers of this century. In this book, however, he appears in another guise: as a literary historian in the tradition of Sainte-Beuve and Belinsky, offering an advanced introduction to one of the richest periods of European literature.These previously untranslated essays - on Heinrich von Kleist, Joseph Eichendorff, Georg Büchner, Heinrich Heine, Gottfried Keller, Wilhelm Raabe, and Theodor Fontane - were written between 1936 and 1950. They illuminate Lukács's enduring love of German literature and his faith in the humanist tradition. In all of them, moreover, he can be seen actively intervening in the cultural debates of the time - on the role of literature, on the literary tradition in society, and on the relationship between literature and politics.Although his defense of realism against the crudities of socialist realism is implicit throughout these essays, Lukács's main purpose was to illuminate the intellectual, historical, and literary context in which these great writers worked, to attain a fuller understanding of what they wrote, and also to settle accounts with contemporary German critics who were attempting to create a fascist pantheon.Rodney Livingstone, Reader in German at the University of Southampton, has edited and translated numerous works by Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and others.
Review
"Lukács is valuable... for insights that encompass cultural history as well as individual texts. From these sevenessays there emerges a view of Germany, a country lacking metropolitanculture, economically backward, politically underdeveloped, and ofwriters whose success is in part a triumph over thosecircumstances.... Probably no critic has more securely explored and located what he calls 'the living dynamic of contradictions in Heine's poetry.'." Philip Brady, Times Literary Supplement The MIT Press
Review
"To read Lukács now is to be reminded of the powerful case that can be made for literary realism and of his continued relevance as a critic." Rodney Livingstone The MIT Press
Synopsis
These previously translated essays--on Heinrich von Kleist, Joseph Eichendorff, Georg B?chner, Heinrich Heine, Gottfried Keller, Wilhelm Raabe, and Theodor Fontane--were written between 1936 and 1950. They illuminate Luk?cs's enduring love of German literature and his faith in the humanist tradition. In all of them, moreover, he can be seen actively intervening in the cultural debates of the time--on the role of literature, on the literary tradition in society, and on the relationship between literature and politics.
Synopsis
These previously translated essays—on Heinrich von Kleist, Joseph Eichendorff, Georg Büchner, Heinrich Heine, Gottfried Keller, Wilhelm Raabe, and Theodor Fontane—were written between 1936 and 1950.
Synopsis
Georg Lukacs was one of the most controversial Marxist philosophers of the twentieth century. In this book, however, he appears in another guise: as a literary historian in the tradition of Sainte-Beuve and Belinsky, offering an advanced introduction to one of the richest periods of European literature.