Reification, Materialism, and Praxis: Adorno's Critique of Lukacs

The work of Georg Lukács has languished in critical neglect since a period of intense interest in his work in the 1960s and early 1970s. Lately, however, there are signs of a revival of interest. The reasons for this are multiple. On the one hand, art theorists and literary critics are turning to Lukács's concept of realism in order to help understand the political and realist turn of contemporary art and literary works.1 In a separate development, social and political theorists are turning again to Lukács's concept of reification as a way of understanding the peculiar social pathologies of…