Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky, in addition to his significant contributions as a writer and journalist, was an important Russian Marxist revolutionary, Bolshevik, and the first head of the Soviet Union's Ministry of Education. He is perhaps best remembered as a pioneer in the field of Marxist art analysis, which is the subject of this collection of essays. In these essays, Lunacharsky analyzes art as both a part of the superstructure of a given class-based system of social production, as well as an industry in and of itself, and how art exists in relation to a given class. What can we learn about society through art? Can art be a tool of social change? These are just some of the questions that Lunacharsky will approach in the coming essays.
This reading contains "Appendix I: What is Aesthetics?" and "Appendix II: Wilhelm Hausenstein."
I am reading from the newly-translated and edited version of these essays published by Germinal Publications. You can purchase a copy here:
https://www.lulu.com/shop/anatoly-lunacharsky/the-marxist-theory-of-art/paperback/product-4zge58.html?page=1&pageSize=4
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