Marxism and Art: Essays Classic and Contemporary

by Maynard Solomon (Editor), Alick West (Contributor), Anatoly Lunacharsky (Contributor)

Marxism and Art is a book of basic readings in Marxist criticism and aesthetics. Maynard Solomon, through his selections and critical introductions, shows connections between the arts and society, between imagination nd history, and between art and revolution. He selects from thirty-six authors to reveal the range of opinion from dogma to heresy, beginning with excerpts from the works of Marx and Engels that are pertinent to an understanding of Marxist philosophy.
The book traverses a wide range of subjects from the origins of art to the nature of creativity, the aesthetic experience, the dialectics of consciousness, the psychology of art, and the evolution of art forms. The sources of art in ritual, in the labor process, in the play drive, and in social conflict are explored.

Genres: Art, Philosophy, Theory

696 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Maynard Elliott Solomon (January 5, 1930 – September 28, 2020) was a co-founder of Vanguard Records as well as a music producer, and later became a writer on music

Reviews

[sologdin]

nice little reader, starting with M&E, passing through soviet theories (including zhdanovism), and then into western and british marxism. probably a good survey.