Everything you participate in has been given to you by society, including your anti-society music and clothing. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels offer an intensified look at how an individual’s consciousness is formed, through society. Life determining consciousness is a concept that Marx and Engels propose in The Communist Manifesto and The German Ideology. This concept is demonstrated within Lukacs’ work The Historical Novel. In relation to both works, this essay will focus on capitalist society. I aim to summarize the concept of life and conscious determination, how Lukacs’ interprets the concept, and how the concept is demonstrated in literary form.
Marx and Engels state, “Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.” …show more content…
It also influences social experiences, like art. This correlation is represented through the historical novel. According to Lukacs the historical novel as a genre was born from the change in consciousness.
“Thus in this mass experience of history the national element is linked on the one hand with problems of social transformation; and on the other, more and more people become aware of the connection between national and world history. This increasing consciousness of the historical character of development begins to influence judgements on economic conditions and class struggle” (Lukacs 915).
Lukacs analyzes multiple historical novels, including Scott’s Waverley. While Lukacs compares it to Shakespeare’s historical dramas, he offers that Scott’s novel is artistic based in events. Waverley solidifies the theory set forth by Marx and Engles of society's influence on individual development. It validates this theory by using historical context and demonstrating the dialectical developments from it. These dialectal developments are the two sides of coin hoping to be understood on a common ground. The proletariat and bourgeoisie are each side of the coin, and the middle ground between the two is highlighting the events of
Marx and Engels state, “Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.” …show more content…
It also influences social experiences, like art. This correlation is represented through the historical novel. According to Lukacs the historical novel as a genre was born from the change in consciousness.
“Thus in this mass experience of history the national element is linked on the one hand with problems of social transformation; and on the other, more and more people become aware of the connection between national and world history. This increasing consciousness of the historical character of development begins to influence judgements on economic conditions and class struggle” (Lukacs 915).
Lukacs analyzes multiple historical novels, including Scott’s Waverley. While Lukacs compares it to Shakespeare’s historical dramas, he offers that Scott’s novel is artistic based in events. Waverley solidifies the theory set forth by Marx and Engles of society's influence on individual development. It validates this theory by using historical context and demonstrating the dialectical developments from it. These dialectal developments are the two sides of coin hoping to be understood on a common ground. The proletariat and bourgeoisie are each side of the coin, and the middle ground between the two is highlighting the events of