Georg Lukács' late aesthetic and film theory: a study of the chapter entitled ‘Film’ in Lukács' The Specificity of the Aesthetic (1963)

Abstract

It is widely known that Georg Lukács was a literary theorist. It is less well known – in the English-speaking world – that he was a film theorist. The reason for this lack of anglophone attentiveness is that Lukács' writings on film were not published in English. His early article ‘Thoughts Towards an Aesthetic of the Cinema’ (1913) has now appeared in English at least five times. However, the long chapter entitled ‘Film’ in his The Specificity of the Aesthetic has only recently appeared in English. This paper will explore the chapter on film in the Aesthetic, and will also make reference to both Lukács' 1913 piece and his early works on literary theory.