How Objective Necessity is different from Subjective Idealism and Mechanical Representation

“Art and Objective Truth”from Writer and Critic (1965, 1970), Georg Lukacs

•       The goal of all great art is to provide a picture of reality in which the contradiction between appearance and reality, the particular and general, the immediate and conceptual is so resolved that the two converge into a spontaneous integrity in the direct impression of the work of art and provide a sense of an inseparable integrity.

•       The universal appears as a quality of the individual and the particular.

•       Reality becomes manifest and can be experienced within appearance

•       Every work of art must present a circumscribed, self-contained and complete context with its own immediately self-evident movement and structure.

•       The true, fundamental relationships in any novel or drama can be disclosed only at the end.

•       Because of the very nature of their construction and effect, only the conclusion provides full clarification of the beginning.

•       The motivating factors in the world depicted in a literary work of art are revealed in an artistic sequence and climaxing.

•       Climaxing must be accomplished within a direct unity of appearance and reality present from the very beginning.

•       The self-contained immediacy in the work of art presupposes that every work of art evolve within itself all the preconditions for its characters, situations, events, etc.

•       The basic materialism of all great artists appears in their clear depiction of the pertinent preconditions and motivations out of which the consciousness of their characters arises and develops.

•       Every significant work of art creates its ‘own world’. Characters, situations, actions, etc.

•       But entirely distinct from everyday reality.

•       The greater the artist, the more intensely his creative power permeates all aspects of his work of art and more pregnantly his fictional world emerges through all the details of the work.

•       Balzac in his book Comedie Humaine argues, “My work has its own geography as well as its own genealogy and its own families, its places and its objects, its people and its facts, its aristocracy and bourgeoisie, its workmen and peasants, its politicians and its dandies-in short its world.”

•       The apparently circumscribed world in the work of art is non-correspondent with reality.

•       But this non-correspondence is only illusion, though a necessary one essential and intrinsic to art.

•       Special world of the work of art results from the fact that the work by its very nature offers a truer, more complete, more vivid and more dynamic reflection of reality.     

•       More concrete insight into reality.                                                                  

•       The effect of the work of art ceases once the reader becomes aware of the contradiction, once he senses that the work of art is not an accurate reflection of reality.

•       This is only illusion and its necessary.

•       Reader does not consciously compare an individual experience with an isolated event of the work of art but surrenders himself to the general effect of the work of art on the basis of his own assembled general experience.

•       The work of art must reflect correctly and in proper proportion all important factors objectively determining the area of life it represents.

•       Area of life becomes comprehensible from within which is called totality of life..

•       The totality of the work of art is rather intensive: the circumscribed and self contained ordering of those factors which objectively are of decisive significance for the portion of life depicted..which determines total life process

Propaganda effect of the genuine work of art

•      The representation of life in art seems more structured and ordered more richly and strictly than ordinary or real life itself.

•      Impartial imitation- taking no stand or providing no call for any action.

Partitionship of objectivity

•      A writer’s sympathy should go for the subordinate/marginalized people. His/her voice should be in favor of downtrodden people.

•      Tendentiousness must spring out of the situation and action without being expressly pointed out.

Aesthetic illusion

•      The effect of work of art is that we surrender ourselves to the work as though it presented reality to us, accept it as reality and immerse ourselves in it although we are always aware that it is not reality but simply a special form of reflecting reality.

•      Lenin observes that “Art does not demand recognition as reality.”

Subjective Idealism

•      Subjective idealism is thinking only in terms of abstract ideas and standing away from the world of reality. Only believing upon your feelings and emotions can not produce the objective reality of society. It can be bad if it does not have link with reality of concrete world, practical world.

Why Art for Art’s Sake was propaganda theory ?

•      Art for art’s sake was developed by bourgeoisie to neglect the content and imitation of life because they never wanted to bring forth the social reality to the common readers. It was developed because with the course of time, they lost the necessary details to include in their writings. Readers would not have accepted their writings because most of the writers belonged to that class. Thus, it was political propaganda to diffuse the working class wrath against them. It was means not to make them aware about the social evils, which was most often due to bourgeois domination.

Why Photographic Representation is not good for art of reality ?

•      Photographic representation is totally accidental, arbitrary and subjective.

•      The objectivity of the artistic reflection of reality depends on the correct reflection of reality.

Objective Anarchy

•      It means that while presenting facts and details in context artist chooses materials out of pure subjectivity and necessity., which is also called objective necessity.

•      Artist should create, choose and organize material out of objective necessity.

•      Details of rape is not presented in the story.

•      Objective reality of particular event.

•      The writer’s empathy should be there, the writer should not advocate for the subaltern people directly.

•      He/she should only show their condition, should not act as supporting or give necessary details supporting their situations.

•      Mechanical representation(Materialism) falls into distorted idealism and subjectivism.