Stephen E Philion <philion at hawaii.edu> asked on Fri, 10 Sep 1999:
A friend has asked me to suggest some works by Marxists on art, or art related...
Any suggestions from Pen'ers or Lbo'ers ? Thanks, Steve
MAGELLAN. Some suggestions in English:
1) the works of Herbert Reed, as the "Meaning of Art";
2) Ernst Fischer ("Von der Notwendigkeit der Kunst" or "On the Need of Art") was translated into English, I think that in a edition by Penguin;
3) There also are some selected passages by Marx and Engels published in many languages by Progress Publishers, in the former USSR, and surely English is among them; there also is an old French selection made by Jean Fréville under the title "Sur la Littérature et l'Art";
4) Georg (or Gyorgy, as it seems to be in Hungarian) Lukács must surely have had his books translated into English, as "Introduction to Marxist Aesthetics" (the first edition was in Italian, "Prolegomeni ad un' Estetica Marxista" and the following in German under a different name, "Über die Besonderheit ---Particularity-- als Kategorie der Aesthetik"); "Marxism and Theory of Literarure" and "Essays on Literature";
5) Just a rough guess that the following were probably translated into English:
5.1) Lucien Goldman, the best known French luckacsian, "Pour une Sociologie du Roman" (one of my favourites!) and the essays published in "Le marxisme et les Sciences Humaines" and "Structures Mentales et Création Culturelle";
5.2) Antonio Gramsci, "Letteratura e Vita Nazionale", "The Intelectuals and the Organization of the Culture";
5.3) Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, "Las Ideas Esteticas de Marx";
5.4) the works of Henri Lefebvre often refer to the world of culture, for instance, "La Vie Quotidienne ---Daily Life-- dans le Monde Moderne", etc.
On pictorial arts there is a very good book by Ferreira Goulart, but its only editions are in Portuguese and Spanish.
In solidarity, Roberto Magellan
1919 / 1999: Entweder Sozialismus, oder Barbarei !
Socialismo ou barbárie !