Lukács [antikvár]

Preface This study of George Lukács is necessarily brief and selective. Its purpose is to facilitate access to an important writer most of whose work has appeared only in Hungarian or in German. It is therefore primarily an essay in interpretation for the benefit of students whose background is American or British. The task would be difficult enough even if Lukács had been less prolific as an author, but additional problems present themselves which must be frankly faced at the outset. Lukács is firmly within the Central European tradition of thought, a tradition whose assumptions for the most part have no precise equivalent in the English-speaking world. Moreover, while for the past half century committed to Marxism, he has substantially adhered to a Hegelian approach not generally accepted among Leninists, let alone Western Marxists, whatever their political affiliation. Lukács' personal involvements after 1917, in his native Hungary and within the wider Orbit of the Communist movement, have borne fruit in factional polemics which for him clearly had, and have, considerable significance, as may be inferred from the autobiographical notes and prefaces he has contributed in recent years to Western editions of his writings. In some instances he has taken the opportunity to withdraw or revise earlier judgements. In other cases he has made use of changes in the political climate for the purpose of repudiating, or describing as merely tactical, certain accommodations to the orthodoxy prevalent in Eastern Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. An account of these tortuous manoeuvres is to be found in the 1967 preface to volume II of his writings issued by a West German publishing house as part of an edition of his major