Totality from Interiority: The Nineteenth-Century Russian Novel as Epic in Georg Lukàcs's The Theory of the Novel. (May 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dantzlerward, Alexandra
• Is Part Of: Slavonica. Volume 20:Number 1(2014:Apr.)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 16
• Publication Date: 2014-05
• Subjects: Slavic literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Slavic philology -- Periodicals; Slavic countries -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Europe, Eastern -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 947.0004918
• DOI: 10.1179/1361742714Z.00000000025
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1361-7427

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>In <italic>The Theory of the Novel</italic>, Georg Lukàcs's (1885–1971) approach to the nineteenth-century Russian novel evidences underlying conflict: without presenting theoretical justification, Lukàcs continually refers to these works as 'epic'. Yet according to the opposition he creates between novel and epic, the idea of a work's belonging to both genres — even peripherally — appears paradoxical. This article explores the possibility that from Lukàcs's approach within the Theory, the particular history and characteristics of the nineteenth-century Russian novel make it genuinely qualify for the seemingly-impossible classification of renewed epic; hence his continual implication that this is its true genre. Lukàcs's treatments of nineteenth-century Russian novelists mentioned in the <italic>Theory</italic> are examined as support for this reading.</p> </abstract>