An intense and lively debate on literature and art between thinkers who became some of the great figures of twentieth-century philosophy and literature.
No other country and no other period has produced a tradition of major aesthetic debate to compare with that which unfolded in German culture from the 1930s to the 1950s. In Aesthetics and Politics the key texts of the great Marxist controversies over literature and art during these years are assembled in a single volume. They do not form a disparate collection but a continuous, interlinked debate between thinkers who have become giants of twentieth-century intellectual history.
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“This is vital reading for anyone concerned with the relationship between art and socialism.” (John Fowles )
“They are key texts in the study of modernism, of expressionist drama and of realism, and of many closely related general questions ... It is genuinely an indispensable volume.” (Raymond Williams )
“They are key texts in the study of modernism, of expressionist drama and of realism, and of many closely related general questions ... It is genuinely an indispensable volume.” (Raymond Williams )
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Text: English, German (translation)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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77 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
an invaluable volume,
By A Customer
This review is from: Aesthetics and Politics: Debates Between Bloch, Lukacs, Brecht, Benjamin, Adorno (Paperback)
This is a well arranged volume of the essays essential to Marxist criticism from the 1930's to the 1950's. The essayists are all critical contributions are summed-up, and their current relevance traced, in a brilliant conclusion by Frederic Jameson, perhaps the most important Marxist critic writing today. I like this volume because the choice of essays is great and the selections are placed in a chronological, point-counterpoint format so that the 'conversation' is easy to follow. The essays are mainly concerned with the realism/modernism dialectic. Lukacs lauds the realism of Balzac and Mann as the exemplary approach to historicism in the novel. Adorno posits that high modernism, though it seems apolitical, provides the most ominous image of capitalism, and that it is thus the more viable revolutionary aesthetic. The other essayists chart the space between these (seemingly) polarized perspectives and provide important insights into the more mystical (Benjamin) and pragmatic (Brecht) applications of Marxist theory. Adorno takes Benjamin to task for not thinking dialectically. And, between Brecht and Adorno, Lukacs takes a beating for his reactionary attachment to the bourgeois realist novel. But Benjamin and Lukacs are both vindicated in Jameson's balanced conclusion. This is a short but invaluable volume for anyone interested in Marxist aesthetic theory.
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