Anna Schubertová

Throughout the twentieth century, realism was the subject of heated and politically charged discussions. In this project, Anna Schubertová revisits these discussions and examines their implications for the history of thinking about literature. To partially delimit the vast field opened by this line of questioning, Schubertová centers her project around Georgy Lukács' theory of realism that, however controversial, constitutes a crucial contribution to twentieth-century debates. His notion of totality connects the epistemic, political, and stylistic aspects of realist novels. The project examines the phenomenon from three interconnected angles, studying the developments of the concept in the theoretical discussions of the twentieth century, examining its relevance from a philosophical perspective in contrast to theories based on mimesis or representation, and employing it in the interpretation of selected novels with respect to the totality of the individual and society as represented in the nation state.