Main Lines of a New Reading of Georg Lukács's "Evolutionary History of the Modern Drama"

What is it about?

Georg Lukács's first major work, Evolutionary History of the Modern Drama, raises the question of the possibility of a “great drama” in modern society. Lukács analyzes the modern drama by constructing an ideal type of dramatic form and inherently connecting it to specific historical conditions to investigate how the fragmented structure of modern society and its ideological counterpart, the historicist worldview, determine the formal characteristics of modern drama. In his view, the problematic character of this social and ideological framework is transferred into modern drama and causes a series of formal flaws that demand an artistic solution. The article indicates the limits of Lukács's approach as well as a necessary rectification of the “political” reading of his first work.

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Why is it important?

My reading of Georg Lukacs's first book (1909) differs from its classic interpretation which strongly politicizes this work. In contrast, I argue that Lukacs's views on the drama articulated in the book were consistently aestheticist.

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