Lukács and the Novel: an Instance of the Neo-Romantic Phase of Modernism

Abstract

Lukács’ pre-Marxist Theory of the Novel is examined both for its neo-Romantic foundations and in its Modernist context. Subsequent attempts by Lukács and others to redefine his Theory of the Novel so that it can serve as a Marxian iconic text are measured against the views of a wide spectrum of twentieth-century literary critics and historians who are not beholden to or who correct Marxian thought. Symptomatic deficiencies are Lukács’ lifetime avoidance of key Romantic philosophers for Modernism such as Schopenhauer, in favor of the Marxian favorite Hegel, his general neglect of post-Enlightenment psychology in literature, and his failure to grasp the longer-term role of critical “irony” in the great humoristic-encyclopedic tradition of the novel from Rabelais and Cervantes over Sterne and Diderot down to Th. Mann and John Barth.