Biographies

The only English-language biography of Lukács is Kadarkay, A., 1991, Georg Lukács. Life, Thought, and Politics, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. In German, there is an extended autobiographical interview in Lukács, Georg, 1980, Gelebtes Denken, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, and a collection of photographs and original sources in Raddatz, F., 1972, Georg Lukács in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten, Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1972.

Primary Sources

Collected Works

There is no complete edition of Lukács’s works in English. The most accessible collection is the (incomplete) German edition of his works:

Lukács, Georg, 1968–1981, Gesammelte Werke, Darmstadt: Luchterhand (cited as GW).

Cited Primary Sources

This list comprises the bibliographical entries for the works by Lukács that are cited in the main article. English translations are cited where available. If no translation is available, the Gesammelte Werke are cited. In the remaining cases, the original publication is cited. Sources are listed by original publication date.

• 1908, “On the Romantic Philosophy of Life. Novalis,” in Soul and Form, A. Bostock (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 42–54. (Scholar)
• 1909, The Sociology of Modern Drama, Oshkosh, WI: Green Mountain Editions, 1965 (A chapter from Lukács’ dissertation which is published in its entirety in GW 15).
• 1910a, “The Bourgeois Way of Life and Art for Art’s Sake. Theodor Storm,” in Soul and Form, A. Bostock (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 55–78. (Scholar)
• 1910b, “The Metaphysics of Tragedy. Paul Ernst,” in Soul and Form, A. Bostock (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 152–174. (Scholar)
• 1910c, “The Foundering of Form against Life. Sören Kierkegaard and Regine Olsen,” in Soul and Form, A. Bostock (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 28–41. (Scholar)
• 1911a, “On the Nature and Form of the Essay,” in Soul and Form, A. Bostock (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 1–18. (Scholar)
• 1911b, “On Poverty of Spirit,” in The Lukács Reader, A. Kadarkay (ed.), Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1995, pp. 42–56. (Scholar)
• 1916, The Theory of the Novel, A. Bostock (trans.), London: Merlin, 1971.
• 1918, “Bolshevism as an Ethical Problem,” in The Lukács Reader, A. Kadarkay (ed.), Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1995, pp. 216–221. (Scholar)
• 1919a, “Tactics and Ethics,” in Tactics and Ethics, Political Writings 1919–1929, R. Livingstone (ed.), London: NLB, 1972, pp. 3–11. (Scholar)
• 1919b, “What is Orthodox Marxism?,” in History and Class Consciousness, R. Livingstone (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 1–26. (Scholar)
• 1920a, “Class Consciousness,” in History and Class Consciousness, R. Livingstone (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 46–82. (Scholar)
• 1920b, “The Moral Mission of the Communist Party,” in Tactics and Ethics, Political Writings 1919–1929, R. Livingstone (ed.), London: NLB, 1972, pp. 64–70. (Scholar)
• 1921, “The Marxism of Rosa Luxemburg,” in History and Class Consciousness, R. Livingstone (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 27–45. (Scholar)
• 1923a, “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat,” in History and Class Consciousness, Rodney Livingstone (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 83–222. (Scholar)
• 1923b, “Towards a Methodology of the Problem of Organisation,” in History and Class Consciousness, R. Livingstone (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. 294–342. (Scholar)
• 1924, Lenin: A Study on the Unity of his Thought, Nicholas Jacobs (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971.
• 1925a, A Defence of History and Class Consciousness: Tailism and the Dialectics, S. Žižek (ed.) and E. Leslie (trans.), London: Verso, 2000.
• 1925b, “The New Edition of Lasalle’s Letters,” in Tactics and Ethics, Political Writings 1919–1929, R. Livingstone (ed.), London: NLB, 1972, pp. 147–177. (Scholar)
• 1926, “Moses Hess and the Problems of Idealist Dialectics,” in Tactics and Ethics, Political Writings 1919–1929, R. Livingstone (ed.), London: NLB, 1972, pp. 181–223. (Scholar)
• 1928, “Blum Theses,” in Tactics and Ethics, Political Writings 1919–1929, R. Livingstone (ed.), London: NLB, 1972, pp. 227–253. (Scholar)
• 1933a, Wie ist die faschistische Philosophie in Deutschland entstanden?, L. Sziklai (ed.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiad, 1982.
• 1933b, “Mein Weg zu Marx,” Internationale Literatur, No. 2, 185–187 (reprinted in Schriften zur Ideologie und Politik, Neuwied: Luchterhand, 1967, 323–329). (Scholar)
• 1938, “Realism in the Balance,” in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, V.B. Leitch (ed.), New York: Norton, 2001, pp. 1033–1058. (Scholar)
• 1948, The Young Hegel, R. Livingstone (trans.), London: Merlin, 1975.
• 1949, Thomas Mann, Aufbau: Berlin.
• 1951, “Hegel’s Aesthetics”, in Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 23 (2), 2002: 87–124. (Scholar)
• 1954, The Destruction of Reason, London: Merlin, 1980.
• 1955, The Historical Novel, London: Merlin, 1962.
• 1957, “Postscriptum 1957 zu: Mein Weg zu Marx,” in Marxismus und Stalinismus. Politische Aufsätze. Ausgewählte Schriften IV, Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1970, pp. 161–171. (Scholar)
• 1962, “Reflections on the Cult of Stalin,” in Survey, No. 47, 1963: 105–111. (Scholar)
• 1967, “Preface to the New Edition,” in History and Class Consciousness, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971, pp. ix–xl. (Scholar)
• 1968, “The ‘Vienna Paper’: The Ontological Foundations of Human Thinking and Action,” in Lukács’s Last Autocriticism: The Ontology, E. Joós, Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1982, pp. 135–148. (Scholar)
• 1971a, Ontology of Social Being, Vol. 1: Hegel’s False and his Genuine Ontology, D. Fernbach (trans.), London: Merlin, 1978 (see part III in GW 13). (Scholar)
• 1971b, Ontology of Social Being, Vol. 2: Marx’s Basic Ontological Principles, D. Fernbach (trans.), London: Merlin, 1978 (see part IV in GW 13). (Scholar)
• 1971c, Ontology of Social Being, Vol. 3: Labour, D. Fernbach (trans.), London: Merlin, 1980 (see part I in GW 14).
• 1981, Essays on Realism, R. Livingstone (trans.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Secondary Sources and Selected Literature

• Anderson, Perry, 1976, Considerations on Western Marxism, London: NLB. (Scholar)
• Adorno, Theodor W., 1973, Negative Dialectics, London: Routledge. (Scholar)
• –––, [1958] 1977, “Reconciliation under Duress,” in Aesthetics and Politics, F. Jameson (ed.), London: Verso, pp. 151–176. (Scholar)
• –––, 1997, “Ad Lukács,” in Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 20.1, Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, pp. 251–256. (Scholar)
• Arato, Andrew, and Paul Breines, 1979, The Young Lukács and the Origins of Western Marxism, New York: The Seabury Press. (Scholar)
• Aronowitz, Stanley, 2015, “Georg Lukács’s Destruction of Reason,” in S. Aronowitz (ed.), Against Orthodoxy: Social Theory and Its Discontents. Political Philosophy and Public Purpose. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 59–72. (Scholar)
• Bernstein, Jay M., 1984, The Philosophy of the Novel: Lukács, Marxism, and the Dialectics of Form, U of Minnesota Press. (Scholar)
• Bewes, Timothy, 2002, Reification. Or the Anxiety of Late Capitalism, New York: Verso. (Scholar)
• Bloch, Ernst, 1923, “Aktualität und Utopie: Zu Lukács’ Philosophie des Marxismus,” Der Neue Merkur, 7: 457–77. (Scholar)
• Brecht, Bertolt, 1977, “Against Georg Lukács,” in Aesthetics and Politics, F. Jameson (ed.), London: Verso, pp. 68–85. (Scholar)
• Braunstein, Dirk, and Simon Duckheim, 2015, “Adornos Lukács. Ein Lektürebericht,” Lukács 2014/15. Jahrbuch der Internationalen Georg Lukács-Gesellschaft, 2014/2015: 27–79. (Scholar)
• Butler, Judith, 2010, “Introduction,” in Soul and Form, J. Sanders, and K. Terezakis (eds.), New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 1–15. (Scholar)
• Brunkhorst, Hauke, 1998, “Paradigm-core and theory-dynamics in critical social theory: people and programs,” (translated by Peter Krockenberger), Philosophy & Social Criticism, 24(6): 67–110. (Scholar)
• Chari, Anita, 2010, “Toward a political critique of reification: Lukács, Honneth and the aims of critical theory,” Philosophy & Social Criticism, 36(5): 587–606. (Scholar)
• Dannemann, Rüdiger, 1987, Das Prinzip Verdinglichung: Studie zur Philosophie Georg Lukács, Frankfurt a. M.: Sendler. (Scholar)
• Deutscher, Isaac, 1972, “Georg Lukács and ‘Critical Realism’,” in Marxism in our Time, T. Deutscher (ed.), London: Jonathan Cape, pp. 283–294. (Scholar)
• Fehér, Ferenc, Ágnes Heller, György Márkus, and Mihály Vajda, 1976, “Notes on Lukacs’ Ontology,” Telos, 1976(29): 160–181. (Scholar)
• Feenberg, Andrew, 1988, “The Question of Organization in the Early Marxist Work of Lukács. Technique or Praxis?,” in Lukács Today. Essays in Marxist Philosophy, T. Rockmore (ed.), Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 126–156. (Scholar)
• –––, 1998, “Dialektischer Konstruktivismus: Zur Aktualität von Lukács’ Konzept der transformierenden Praxis,” Jahrbuch der Internationalen Georg-Lukács-Gesellschaft, 1998/99: 52–63. (Scholar)
• –––, 2011, “Reification and its Critics,” in Georg Lukács Reconsidered. Critical Essays in Politics, Philosophy and Aesthetics, M. J. Thompson (ed.), London: Continuum, pp. 195–209. (Scholar)
• –––, 2014, The Philosophy of Praxis: Marx, Lukács and the Frankfurt School, London: Verso. (Scholar)
• –––, 2017, “Why Students of the Frankfurt School Will Have to Read Lukács,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Theory, M.J. Thompson (ed.), New York: Palgrave, pp. 109–133. (Scholar)
• Feinberg, Joseph Grim, 2020, “Georg Lukács’s Archimedean Socialism,” in G.R. Smulewicz-Zucker (ed.), Confronting Reification: Revitalizing Georg Lukács’s Thought in Late Capitalism. Leiden: Brill, pp. 186–202. (Scholar)
• Goldmann, Lucien, 1977, Lukács and Heidegger. Towards a New Philosophy, London: Routledge. (Scholar)
• Habermas, Jürgen, 1984, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1, T. McCarthy (trans.), Boston: Beacon Press. (Scholar)
• Hartsock, Nancy, 1983, “The Feminist Standpoint,” in S. Harding and M.B. Hintikka (eds.), Discovering Reality. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 283–310. (Scholar)
• Heller, Ágnes, 1983, “Lukács’s Later Philosophy,” in Lukács Revalued, Á. Heller (ed.), Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 177–190. (Scholar)
• Honneth, Axel, 2008, Reification: A New Look at an Old Idea, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Jaggar, Alison M., 1983, Feminist Politics and Human Nature, Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld. (Scholar)
• Jameson, Fredric, 1971, Marxism and Form, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2009, “History and Class Consciousness as an ‘Unfinished Project’,” Rethinking Marxism, 1(1): 49–72. (Scholar)
• Jay, Martin, 1984, Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas, Berkeley: University of California Press. (Scholar)
• Joós, Ernest, 1982, Lukács’s Last Autocriticism: The Ontology, Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press. (Scholar)
• Kavoulakos, Konstantinos, 2014, Ästhetizistische Kulturkritik und ethische Utopie. Georg Lukács’ neukantianisches Frühwerk, Berlin: de Gruyter. (Scholar)
• –––, 2017, “Lukács’ Theory of Reification and the Tradition of Critical Theory,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Theory, M.J. Thompson (ed.), New York: Palgrave, pp. 67–86. (Scholar)
• –––, 2018, Georg Lukács’ Philosophy of Praxis: Reconsidering His Early Marxist Work., London: Bloomsbury Publishing. (Scholar)
• Kolakowski, Leszek, 1978, The Main Currents of Marxism. Vol III: The Downfall, Oxford: Clarendon. (Scholar)
• Lichtheim, George, 1970, Lukács, London: Collins. (Scholar)
• López, Daniel Andrés, 2019, Lukács: Praxis and the Absolute, Leiden: Brill. (Scholar)
• Lotz, Christian, 2020, “Categorial Forms as Intelligibility of Social Objects: Reification and Objectivity in Lukács,” in G.R. Smulewicz-Zucker (ed.), Confronting Reification. Brill, pp. 25–47. (Scholar)
• Löwy, Michael, 1979, Georg Lukács—From Romanticism to Bolshevism, London: New Left Books. (Scholar)
• –––, 2011, “Revolutionary Dialectics against ‘Tailism’: Lukács’ Answer to the Criticisms of History and Class Consciousness,” in Georg Lukács Reconsidered. Critical Essays in Politics, Philosophy and Aesthetics, M. J. Thompson (ed.), London: Continuum, pp. 65–64. (Scholar)
• Márkus, György, 1983, “Life and the Soul: the Young Lukács and the Problem of Culture,” in Lukács Revalued, á. Heller (ed.), Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 177–190. (Scholar)
• Marx, Karl, [1867] 1992, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy E. Mandel (ed.), New York: Penguin. (Scholar)
• Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1973, Adventures of the Dialectic, Evanston: Northwestern University Press. (Scholar)
• Mészáros, István, 1972, Lukács’ Concept of Dialectic, London: Merlin Press. (Scholar)
• Pike, David, 1988, “The Owl of Minerva: Reappraisals of Georg Lukács, East and West,” German Studies Review, 11(2): 193–225. (Scholar)
• –––, 1985, Lukács and Brecht, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. (Scholar)
• Pitkin, Hannah, 1987, “Rethinking reification,” Theory and Society, 16(2): 263–293. (Scholar)
• Rockmore, Tom, 2001, “Lukács, Marxist Aesthetics and Truth,” Jahrbuch der Internationalen Georg-Lukács-Gesellschaft, 2001: 139–159. (Scholar)
• Rose, Gillian, 2009, Hegel Contra Sociology, London: Verso. (Scholar)
• Schiller, Hans-Ernst, 2011, “Tod und Utopie: Ernst Bloch, Georg Lukács,” in R. Klein, J. Kreuzer, and S. Müller-Doohm (eds.), Adorno-Handbuch: Leben – Werk – Wirkung. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, pp. 36–45. (Scholar)
• Smith, Dorothy E., 1974, “Women’s Perspective as a Radical Critique of Sociology,” Sociological Inquiry, 44(1): 7–13. (Scholar)
• Stahl, Titus, 2011, “Verdinglichung als Pathologie zweiter Ordnung,” Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 59(5): 731–746. (Scholar)
• –––, 2018, “Lukács and the Frankfurt School,” in The Routledge Companion to the Frankfurt School, P.E. Gordon, E. Hammer, and A. Honneth (eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 237–250. (Scholar)
• Teixeira, Mariana, 2020, “The Revolutionary Subject in Lukács and Feminist Standpoint Theory: Dilaceration and Emancipatory Interest,” in Confronting Reification, Brill, pp. 227–251. (Scholar)
• Tertulian, Nicolas, 1988, “Lukács’ Ontology,” in T. Rockmore (ed.), Lukács Today: Essays in Marxist Philosophy, Sovietica, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 243–273. (Scholar)
• Thompson, Michael, 2011, “Ontology and Totality: Reconstructing Lukács’ Concept of Critical Theory,” in Georg Lukács Reconsidered. Critical Essays in Politics, Philosophy and Aesthetics, M. J. Thompson (ed.), London: Continuum, pp. 229–250. (Scholar)