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| author |
David Sockol
| | title |
A Unity of Opposites: The Ironic Emergence of an Activist Aesthetic from the "Vulgar" Marxism of Georgi Plekhanov
| | abstract |
Although Georgi Plekhanov is widely recognized as the "Father of Russian Marxism" for his role in founding the first Russian Marxist organization, his thinking has consistently been dismissed as exemplifying the rigidly deterministic "vulgar" Marxism supposedly prevalent during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This work contests this portrayal by examining Plekhanov's pioneering work in applying Marxism to aesthetic theory. I argue that, contrary to claims that Plekhanov viewed economics as the sole casual force of social phenomena, his writings on aesthetics repeatedly extolled the political influence art could exert and even called for artworks that would disseminate Marxist ideas to their audience. I further argue that this activist aesthetic was the product of Plekhanov's involvement in the Revisionist Debate of the late nineteenth century, precipitated by Eduard Bernstein's claims that Marxism required revising and subsequent formulation of a theory of socialism dispensing with many orthodox tenets including the goal of revolutionary upheaval. In his polemics against Bernstein, Plekhanov aimed to discredit the Kantian philosophy he believed Bernstein was drawing upon to formulate his ideas, including Immanual Kant's claims of the disinterested appreciation of beauty. The resulting normalization of instrumental art within Plekhanov's thinking intersected with his growing concerns that, as evidenced by the popularity of Revisionism, the working class was not an innately revolutionary force in society. Part of his remedy for this was to leverage his new ideas about art and call for works that would serve the didactic function of instilling revolutionary ideas within the working class. In doing so, Plekhanov formulated an activist aesthetic that ironically departed from the orthodoxy he had hoped to defend.
| | school |
The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University
| | degree |
Ph.D. (2024)
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| advisor |
Edward Baring
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| committee |
Frances Bernstein
Neil Levi
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| full text | DSockol.pdf |
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