George Luksacs

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Are any of you familiar with this guy? I want to read some of his work as they are on topics I'm interested in, but as I am pretty busy lately and don't have a lot of time to read, and since im unfamiliar with him, I'd like to make sure these are worth my time:

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/theory-novel/index.htm

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/index.htm

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Theory of the Novel is a pre-marxist text (he'd become a communist after the Russian Revolution). IIRC, Lukács himself admits to be heavily influenced by Kant at the time.

History and Class Consciousness is a must read. Very influential for Frankfurt School, for example. Although the author would staunchly criticize this work (see 1967 preface) for its supposed hegelianism and a mix of Weber and Marx (and Simmel). After being criticized by Lenin he goes full Leninist and writes this (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/1924/lenin/), which is nice and all but a bit apologetic.

In my opinion, his best is the mature work on literature (history, theory etc) such as The Historical Novel, some essays, and his Aesthetic (if you're into that thing, shit's fucking hard).

Politically lost. If you're interested Michael Löwy has written a biography of him (you can also find this (http://newleftreview.org/I/91/michael-lowy-lukacs-and-stalinism) short version in New Left Review).

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

I think Theory of the Novel and Forms of the Soul were more Fichtean than Kantian, although it really is difficult to be "purely" Kantian anyway. History... is pretty Hegelian, in my estimation, but it's still interesting. His concept of "orthodox Marxism" is more in line with what Marx and Engels would have meant by the concept than the sterility of the late ComIntern. But it does have its weird turns - History and Class Consciousness, that is. His critique of Adorno is pretty much spot-on. I would also recommend his "Ontology of Labour", although that is pretty Hegelian as well.

[motion denied]

For a critic approach to his work by a disciple see Istvan Meszaros, "Lukács' Concept of Dialectic". Search for the early Agnes Heller and Gyorgy Markus for studies regarding Lukacs' mature (unfinished) work, Ontology of the Social Being.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Yeah, "Ontology of Social Being", I think "Ontology of Labour" was only one part of that. Or maybe that's just how it was translated into Moonspeak.

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some essays, and his Aesthetic (if you're into that thing, shit's fucking hard).


Can you link to this? I've searched but can't find it

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Can you link to this? I've searched but can't find it

I'm afraid not. Since Lukács has become quite popular among academics and marxists in general in here, his main works have been directly translated. All links I know would be in Portuguese.

Oh. But you can find some essays on New Left Review.