Epic restoration requires social transformation, not the novelist’s will

Evidence

For it is clear to Lukács, at the end of his work, that the transformation of novel into epic has as its precondition not the novelist’s will but the transformation of his society and his world. The renewed epic cannot come into being until the world itself has been transfigured, regenerated; and his final comment, that the novels of Dostoyevsky offer a glimpse into such an ultimate, totally humanized Utopia, must be taken more in the way of prediction than of formal analysis. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 367

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ADDENDUM candidate — the worldbuilding-sacrifice theme: the novel cannot manufacture the totality its form requires. — connects to: Literary description flourishes precisely when human beings become reified — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 402; Realism began as description of existing works before becoming prescriptive dogma — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 386; Lukács holds that epic rebirth awaits social transformation, not the novelist’s will — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 367 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Lukács holds that epic rebirth awaits social transformation, not the novelist’s will #corroborates (1.00) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 367
• Literature formally resolves, in the imaginary, social contradictions that cannot be resolved in reality #expands (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 740
• Religious observance rather than worldly struggle can drive novelistic transformation #qualifies (0.75)
• Sensitive historic reconstruction can revive a city without displacing residents #qualifies (0.72) — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 297