Lukács holds that epic rebirth awaits 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: Core of the reader’s stated purpose: this is Lukács’s totality/mediation doctrine, the base-structure determinism that Jameson later reframes from his Frankfurt standpoint; connects to Jameson’s own ‘political unconscious’ thesis that narrative form is socially determined. — connects to: Epic restoration requires social transformation, not the novelist’s will — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 367; Lukács moves from metaphysical to historical framing of the novel’s hero — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 372; Lukacs distinguished closed epic culture from the god-abandoned novel — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 263 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Lukács repudiated his early theory of the novel as idealistic and mythological #corroborates (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 300
• Lukács moves from metaphysical to historical framing of the novel’s hero #expands (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 372
• Lukacs distinguished closed epic culture from the god-abandoned novel #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 263