Marx & Engels on literature and art : a selection of writings

by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lee Baxandall (Editor)

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels on Literature and Art is an accomplished revision of a major anthology of their writings on aesthetic matters. Distinguished by its careful thematic grouping of the appropriate works, and prefaced by a masterly essay by Stefan Morawski, the volume is here republished for the first time in over thirty years. For this new edition, Macdonald Daly has added an introductory “Short History of Marxist Aesthetics”, to situate Marx and Engels in the later history of the field, and to shine the light of later Marxist theory on the original anthology. He has also systematically revised, updated and amended Baxandall and Morawski’s explanatory notes, and substantially enlarged and corrected their original index. By these means, what was once the standard English text of Marx and Engels’ aesthetic reflections now returns to its rightful place as the first in the definitive multi-volume series, Documents on Marxist Aesthetics. “In the crucial but problematic field of Marxist aesthetics, Morawski is surely the greatest living authority. Morawski’s study of Marx’s own aesthetic pronouncements appears as the preface to the valuable new collection of Marx and Engels’ writings On Literature and Art … It may be considered definitive.” Fredric Jameson “… the best epitome of Marxist aesthetics in English, and so far as I know, in any language.” Melvin Rader, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Genres: Art, Philosophy, Theory

175 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1973

About the author

With the help of Friedrich Engels, German philosopher and revolutionary Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867-1894), works, which explain historical development in terms of the interaction of contradictory economic forces, form many regimes, and profoundly influenced the social sciences.

German social theorist Friedrich Engels collaborated with Karl Marx on The Communist Manifesto in 1848 and on numerous other works.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakunin in London opposed Communism of Karl Marx with his antithetical anarchy.

Works of Jacques Martin Barzun include Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1941).

The Prussian kingdom introduced a prohibition on Jews, practicing law; in response, a man converted to Protestantism and shortly afterward fathered Karl Marx.

Marx began co-operating with Bruno Bauer on editing Philosophy of Religion of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (see Democritus and Epicurus), doctoral thesis, also engaged Marx, who completed it in 1841. People described the controversial essay as "a daring and original piece... in which Marx set out to show that theology must yield to the superior wisdom." Marx decided to submit his thesis not to the particularly conservative professors at the University of Berlin but instead to the more liberal faculty of University of Jena, which for his contributed key theory awarded his Philosophiae Doctor in April 1841. Marx and Bauer, both atheists, in March 1841 began plans for a journal, entitled Archiv des Atheismus (Atheistic Archives), which never came to fruition.

Marx edited the newspaper Vorwärts! in 1844 in Paris. The urging of the Prussian government from France banished and expelled Marx in absentia; he then studied in Brussels. He joined the league in 1847 and published.

Marx participated the failure of 1848 and afterward eventually wound in London. Marx, a foreigner, corresponded for several publications of United States.
He came in three volumes. Marx organized the International and the social democratic party.

Marx in a letter to C. Schmidt once quipped, "All I know is that I am not a Marxist," as Warren Allen Smith related in Who's Who in Hell .

People describe Marx, who most figured among humans. They typically cite Marx with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, the principal modern architects.

Bertrand Russell later remarked of non-religious Marx, "His belief that there is a cosmic ... called dialectical materialism, which governs ... independently of human volitions, is mere mythology" ( Portraits from Memory , 1956).

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bi...
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/...
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic...
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

Reviews

[Luke Echo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable anthology of various paragraphs and letters by Marx and Engels on Art and Literature. If this includes all the significant texts, it's striking just how little they wrote on art.

I found it rather a confusing read, jumping around back and forth, it would have been better to have split the single initial "Introduction" up into little introductions for each section of extracts.

[Andre Diehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro, awesome paragraph selection/methodology. Favorite pull quote from Engels, "the history of science is the history of the gradual clearing away of [naturalistic, primitive] nonsense or of its replacement by fresh but always less absurd nonsense." (Letter, 1891)

[Pável Granados]

Ni Karl Marx ni Friedrich Engels escribieron sistemáticamente acerca de la literatura, aun cuando sus obras se encuentran llenas de referencias a autores que van desde la antigüedad griega hasta sus contemporáneos. Para disgusto de los enemigos del materialismo histórico, Marx y Engels admiraban a artistas que tenían opiniones contrarias a su pensamiento. Y, por el contrario, no siempre admiraron a los escritores que profesaban ideas cercanas al marxismo. A grandes rasgos: prefirieron a Zola por sobre Balzac. El deleite con que Marx recorría la Comedia humana habla de un hecho que destacó en un pasaje de los Grundrisse: el mundo griego ha muerto con su religión, pero su literatura perdura. ¿Cuál es la razón? Responder a esta pregunta lleva a caminos que no necesariamente exploraron Marx y Engels. Incluso, hay aspectos del pensamiento marxista que no son literarios, como su idea de que la mercancía crea el consumo. Aplicado a la literatura, podemos pensar que el éxito de una obra literaria produce un mercado que pide obras semejantes, lo que puede explicar la existencia de los géneros literarios: la exigencia de consumo sobre la creación. Considero que la preferencia de Marx por el Realismo no es de tipo ideológico, sino que era el género de su tiempo, el que trata de explicar el destino del hombre por medios distintos del Hado. El Hado sería aquí la sociedad, el determinismo económico, las leyes del capitalismo. Naturalmente, su enemigo inicial fue Schelling, “el filósofo oficial de la reacción romántica” (Lukács), el frente anti-hegeliano que era necesario combatir. Para Hegel, el Romanticismo no logra conceder a la idea una forma material precisa: es cualitativo, a diferencia del arte clásico que se regía por un ideal cuantitativo. Y Marx tenía un rechazo por la estética romántica, ese fetichismo del objeto producido por una sociedad degradada a la veneración de las mercancías. Si seguimos disfrutando de Homero sin creer en los dioses griegos, puede postularse la existencia de un valor estético, de una producción humana realizada de acuerdo con las leyes de la belleza. Estas ideas le permitieron a Mijaíl Lifschitz, años después, oponerse a la “sociología vulgar” desarrollada por algunos teóricos soviéticos que postulaban que, al caer el capitalismo, se dejaría de leer a Shakespeare para consumir los productos artísticos de la nueva sociedad sin clases. Pero la valoración del arte a partir de la ideología sería algo opuesto al pensamiento marxista. Por lo contrario, el desarrollo de las potencialidades artísticas. Leer los textos de Marx y Engels destinados a estos temas es arduo, hay que sumergirse en un contexto demasiado ajeno y complejo para darle seguimiento a las ideas de ambos autores; pero como lector, uno extrae: la implacable crítica a las “teorías románticas-reaccionarias”, la conceptualización del capitalismo como un medio de producción hostil a la cultura y al arte, y el análisis que permite evidenciar las contradicciones ideológicas contenidas en la obra artística.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Em questão de conteúdo, é excelente. Uma seleção de trechos e textos diversos dos fundadores do Marxismo em que abordam tanto o processo artístico quanto crítica literária.
O texto introdutório de Lukács também é muito interessante. Ali ele discute o método materialista histórico de se produzir arte e a necessidade de uma antologia como essa que permita criar uma semente para uma estética marxista com bases mais sólidas. O segundo texto introdutório, de Lifschitz, foi menos marcante.
A parte mais interessante dos escritos de Marx e Engels é a explicação da própria dialética materialista histórica e como ela se manifesta na arte e literatura. Há crítica tanto ao romantismo pequeno-burguês quanto a um realismo oco e esquemático. O argumento é de que o realismo materialista deve representar seus personagens como pessoas completas e que não sejam simplesmente encarnações de seus papeis de classe. É necessário retratar como as condições materiais dos personagens refletem as suas interações e ambições e emoções.
Na parte de crítica literária também é bastante interessante por haver recomendações de poetas e romancistas que desconhecia mas cujas obras são largamente elogiadas (ou duramente criticadas) pela dupla Carlinhos e Fred. Também é curioso de ver que trechos dedicados a grandes nomes da literatura como Goethe ou Shakespeare às vezes são mais escassos do que uma longa resposta a uma figura menor contra a qual os dois polemizaram.
Não é um texto definitivo de estética, mas deve servir, como Lukács introduz, para futuras elaborações para trabalhos mais específicos sobre o tema.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nuanced selection of commentary by Marx and Engels that draws not only from published works but personal correspondence (adequately contextualized with notes). Section headings which seem oblique at first congeal into meaningful groupings that help the reader through a diverse (thematically and temporally) array of commentary - commentary which becomes more rewarding as one catches the flow of both Marx’s and Engel’s distinct tastes and critical character. The more acquainted with the text one becomes, the richer the selections; the value of this compilation is extended by the consequently worthwhile nature of a second read, in addition to the convenience of having disparately composed minutiae in such organized proximity. It fleshes out - both in its main contents and supplementary notes about Marx by associates - the too often one-dimensional portrayal of Marx absent his aesthetic concern, and helps contextualize Engels’ own character and aesthetic or compositional taste in complementary juxtaposition. And so is a wonderful complement to more typical readings in the Marx/Engels cannon, and aids one in speculating upon the possible influences of Engels upon Marx’s legacy/analytical program after his passing.

Also there are a few great moments where Marx isn’t really talking about art, he’s just insulting someone in a hilariously mean way, but he’ll use, like, an artistic allusion to do it, so it makes the editorial cut. Bonus.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allí donde cesa la especulación, en la vida real, comienza, pues, la ciencia real y positiva, la representación de la actividad práctica, del proceso práctico de desarrollo de los hombres. Caen las frases sobre la conciencia y en su lugar debe surgir el saber real.

F. Engels

[Luís · Rating 2 out of 5]

Infelizmente a Literatura e a Arte não são áreas que eu domino, portanto li as primeiras 15 páginas um pouco de arrasto até que desisti.

[Sachin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far better than their dogmatic followers.