ABSTRACT
Georg Lukacs is often associated with 'socialist realism' and his refutation of Modernism. Lukacs critics view him as consistent with his doctrine, arguing that his refutation of Modernism and his support of socialist realism fall in line with Zhdanovite dogmatism. 'Socialist realism' is a term that has been abused and distorted since its inception. Only a theoretician who also practices the arts could see how naturalism resembles realism, sophism resembles dialectics, and mechanistic materialism resembles dialectical materialism. If one can ever distinguish the semantic from the ideological natures of the art-form, then one could say that realism is a translation of the relationship between human beings and the world into the mediated 'language' of the figure. Lukacs shared a common ethical argument for realism with Bertolt Brecht. The analogy of the Blue Horse typifies the Marxist polemic on realism. For Lukacs and Brecht there are no doubts about realism's paramountcy.
