Il lungo soggiorno di György Lukács

Saggio introduttivo

Abstract

This introductory essay uses the Rezeptiongeschichte, understood in its Benjaminian sense, to reconstruct the rhythm of Lukács’s fortune. In particular, it emphasises how, at major historical turning points and in different political contexts on the international stage, Lukács’s writings played an important role within Marxist culture and the political parties and movements inspired by it. The reasons for the long exile that Lukács’s works have experienced in postmodernity are also taken into consideration. Special attention is given to the peculiar features of Lukács’s reception in Italy, although at the same time the need to extend an enriching mapping exercise beyond European borders is stressed.

The contribution also proposes some paths for a re-examination of the implications that the attribution of the Hungarian thinker’s work to major currents such as “Western Marxism” and “Hegelian Marxism” has had on the reception of Lukács’s works.

In order to provide an introductory framework for the essays that compose the monographic section, the most recent orientations of Lukács-Forschung are then intercepted and those theoretical issues addressed by the thinker which retain greater critical relevance in light of the contemporary scenario are identified.

Finally, following the identification of the limitations of a persistent discontinuist reading of Lukács’s work and of the problematic character of the Adornian interpretative scheme of the descending parabola, the readings of Franco Fortini and Fredric Jameson are re-proposed. Both, in fact, suggested retracing Lukács’s production backwards, in order to highlight the re-emergence in his mature works of themes and issues from his youth, as the result of a constant confrontation, characterised by the rejection of any easy mediation, with the challenges of the Short Twentieth century.