Luk Csian Film Theory and Cinema

The Hungarian Marxist critic Georg Lukacs is primarily known as a literary theorist, but he also wrote extensively on the cinema. These writings have remained little known in the English-speaking world because the great majority of them have never actually been translated into English - until now. Aitken has gathered together the most important essays and the translations appear here, often for the first time. This book thus makes a decisive contribution to understandings of Lukacs within the field of film studies, and, in doing so, also challenges many existing preconceptions concerning his theoretical position. For example, whilst Lukacs' literary theory is well known for its repudiation of naturalism, in his writings on film Lukacs appears to advance a theory and practice of film that can best be described as naturalist.