‘Polemics pertinent at the time of publication’: Georg Lukács, International Literature, and the Popular Front

Twentieth Century Communism - ISSN 1758-6437
Volume 2017 Number 12

‘Polemics pertinent at the time of publication’: Georg Lukács, International Literature, and the Popular Front
Glyn Salton-Cox pages -

Abstract

It is a hitherto unexamined axiom of literary, cultural, and intellectual history that Georg Lukács had no interwar reception in Britain. Largely derived from Perry Anderson’s attacks on British parochialism of the 1960s and 1970s, the persistence of this presupposition can be observed in the search for autochthonous figures who might provide a proxy for Lukács in the 1930s, Christopher Caudwell being the most prominent example. And yet, there was an ‘English Lukács’: one ‘George Lukacs’ whose essays appeared in translation in the English edition of the Soviet multi-lingual journal International Literature from 1935-39. The translations included two important articles later trans-lated by Arthur Kahn, ‘Narration vs. Description’ (1937), and ‘The Intellectual Physiognomy of Literary Characters’ (1936), as the earlier translations rendered the titles; the first two chapters of The Historical Novel (1938); three lesser-known essays not re-translated, ‘Essay on the Novel’ (1936), ‘Nietzsche: Forerunner of Fascist Aesthetics’ (1935), and ‘On Socialist Realism’ (1939); and a funeral address Lukács gave for Maxim Gorky, ‘Gorky: Great Proletarian Humanist’ (1937).

SORRY - you are not registered as being permitted online access to the full text of this article

You have the following options:

  1. If you are viewing this via an institution or academic library you can ask that your institution takes out a Subscription to this journal.
  2. If you already have a Personal Subscription please login below


    Forgotten your username / password? Click here to locate

  3. Purchase an annual Personal Subscription
    PRINT + DIGITAL personal subscription (£30 / year)
    DIGITAL personal subscription (£25 / year)
    A Personal Subscription provides immediate access not only to the single article you are seeking, but also to all past and future articles in this journal up to the expiry of your annual (calendar year) subscription.
  4. Purchase immediate access to this single article (UK£7.00) - Buy article Coming Soon

To cite this article
Glyn Salton-Cox (2017) ‘Polemics pertinent at the time of publication’: Georg Lukács, International Literature, and the Popular Front, Twentieth Century Communism, 2017(12), -

Share this