Catharsis and aesthetic experience in Georg Lukacs’ “Aesthetics” (1963)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to describe how the aesthetic experience and the idea of catharsis are presented in Georg Lukacs’ late aesthetics, considering that his original project was organized in three parts: the particularity of the aesthetic fact, the problems of the artistic reflection and, finally, the philosophical typology of aesthetic behavior. Unfortunately, Lukacs wrote only the first part of the work, in 1963. Although he pointed out to the reader that some important considerations about the aesthetic behavior would be discussed in the third part of his study, the author wrote some notes about the receptive experience and the idea of catharsis, which will be presented in this essay.