SOURCE: Graham, Gordon. “Lukács and Realism after Marx.” British Journal of Aesthetics 38, no. 2 (April 1998): 198-207.

In the following essay, Graham attempts to analyze Georg Lukács' theory of literary realism in light of the fact that the Marxist theory on which it was based is no longer viable.

To the memory of Mark Goodman

(1974-1997)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the following question. What, if anything, can be retained of Lukács's defence of literary realism if we suppose (as there is reason to) that the Marxist theory to which it was so closely allied is no longer viable? To limit the scope of this question, I shall be concerned solely with the version of realism which Lukács discusses in the three essays gathered together under the title The Meaning of Contemporary Realism.¹

I

The connection between realism, Marxism, and Lukács's account...