Georg Lukacs: The Fundamental Dissonance of Existence: Aesthetics, Politics, Literature

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The end of the Soviet period, the vast expansion in the power and influence of capital, and recent developments in social and aesthetic theory, have made the work of Hungarian Marxist philosopher and social critic Georg Lukcs more vital than ever. The very innovations in literary method that, during the 80s and 90s, marginalized him in the West have now made possible new readings of Lukcs, less in thrall to the positions taken by Lukcs himself on political and aesthetic matters. What these developments amount to, this book argues, is an opportunity to liberate Lukcs's thought from its formal and historical limitations, a possibility that was always inherent in Lukcs's own thinking about the paradoxes of form. This collection brings together recent work on Lukcs from the fields of Philosophy, Social and Political Thought, Literary and Cultural Studies. Against the odds, Lukcs's thought has survived: as a critique of late capitalism, as a guide to the contradictions of modernity, and as a model for a temperament that refuses all accommodation with the way things are.

Reviews

Materialist and formalist, realist and utopian, ontological and prophetic, militant and rebel, Gyrgy Lukacs remains a disturbing oxymoron to be interpreted - therefore transformed. In truly dialectical and dialogical manner, this books succeeds in doing just that, burying the verdicts of obsolescence, illuminating the ambivalences, and making again of the "principle of totality" which traverses the philosopher's writings a category for radically overturning an alienated society. -- Etienne Balibar, author (with Louis Althusser) of Reading Capital
The substance of [this book] remains refreshingly persistent, then, in focusing on critical illuminations of Lukcs, most effectively in the central set of essays... What emerges is the need for a thorough rereading and rethinking of History and Class Consciousness as a primary text in contemporary political philosophy.... The inclusion of translations of two essays by Lukcs himself...helps to give this book an edge. -- Drew Milne * Radical Philosophy 171 *
Lwys essay beautifully does what Lukcs does at his best, and what this collection as a whole does as well: it challenges deadening constructions and shows how diminished relationships - within a tradition, among works, between people and the natural and social world - can be returned to the realm of dynamic engagement. -- Katie Terezakis * New Formations *
There is clearly a lot going on in these volumes... each contains some strong essays which, taken together, reaffirm Lukcs as a figure to be reckoned with. -- Bryan Smyth * Symposium 16:2 *

Author Bio

Timothy Bewes is Associate Professor of English at Brown University, USA. He is a member of the editorial boards of the journals Novel and New Formations. His publications include Cynicism and Postmodernity (Verso, 1997), Reification, or the Anxiety of Late Capitalism (Verso, 2002), and The Event of Postcolonial Shame (Princeton University Press, 2011). Timothy Hall is Senior Lecturer in the Department of International Politics at the University of East London, UK. He is co-author of The Modern State: theories and ideologies (Edinburgh University Press, 2007).