Georg Lukacs and Critical Theory

Reflects the extraordinary scope and topicality of Lukács and Frankfurt School thought This book examines the heritage of critical theory from the Hungarian Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács through the early Frankfurt School up to current issues of authoritarian politics and democratisation. Interweaving discussion of art and literature, utopian thought, and the dialectics of high art and mass culture, it offers unique perspectives on an interconnected group of left-wing intellectuals who sought to understand and resist their society's systemic impoverishment of thought and experience. Starting from Lukács's reflections on art, utopia, and historical action, it progresses to the Frankfurt School philosopher Theodor W. Adorno's analyses of music, media, avant-garde and kitsch. It concludes with discussions of erotic utopia, authoritarianism, postsocialism and organised deceit in show trials - topics for which the legacy of Lukács and Frankfurt School critical theory continue to be relevant today. Tyrus Miller is Professor of Art History and English at University of California, Irvine. His publications include Modernism and the Frankfurt School (Edinburgh University Press, 2014) and Late Modernism: Politics, Fiction, and the Arts Between the World Wars (1999).