Abstract

Lukács attacked modernism in twentieth century literature as “pure formalism,” and echoed with the choice of that term a long ideological and political struggle—which was in many ways only incidentally over literature. In an article by Brecht, only recently published, the model of the nineteenth century narriative novel offered by Lukács is opposed with a paradoxical reply. “Realism is not a mere question of form. Were we to copy the style of these realists, we would no longer be realists… The criteria for popular art and realism must therefore be chosen generously and carefully, and not drawn merely from existing realistic works… By doing so, one would arrive at formalistic criteria, and popular art and realism in form only.”