The Modern Essay - The Essay As A Literary Genre
THE ESSAY AS A LITERARY GENRE
Georg Lukács
SOURCE: "On the Nature and Form of the Essay: A Letter to Leo Popper," in Soul and Form, translated by Anna Bostock, Merlin Press, 1974, pp. 1-18.
[A Hungarian literary critic and philosopher, Lukdcs is acknowledged as one of the leading proponents of Marxist theory. His development of Marxist ideology was part of a broader system of thought which sought to further the values of rationalism (peace and progress), humanism (Socialist politics), and traditionalism (Realist literature) over the counter-values of irrationalism (war), totalitarianism (reactionary politics), and modernism (post-Realist literature). In major works such as Studies in European Realism (1950) and The Historical Novel (1955), Lukdcs explicated his belief that art is wasteful and harmful if not made consonant with history and human needs. The following letter, originally published in Hungarian in 1910,...
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