Ádám Takács

Georg Lukács was a major influence in the emergence of critical social theory and a key inspiration for what has been termed ‘Western Marxism’ and ‘New Left’ in Europe and in the United States in the 1960s onward. Whereas the academic interest in his legacy was often limited to European contexts, it can be argued that the impact of Lukács’ ideas in the United States deserves equally greater attention. For it can inform us about important aspects of academic orientation among US intellectuals in an age when pursuing theoretical research with social-critical awareness was much more common than at present. The proposed research seeks to extend existing knowledge about these cultural processes by exploring hitherto unknown or neglected aspects of the reception of the work of Georg Lukács in the US. I will be particularly interested to see which scholars and what kind of scholarly preferences, influences, trends, publications, groups, and institutions shaped this reception and in what chronological order.