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Gum Brecht 1985
Gum Brecht 1985
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literatureof the past, it was the genius of the great writersin whose
discourse-as in a focus-one could hope to attain,once and forall,
in its "totality,"that national characterof which the national history
was taken to be the articulation.More familiar-and tolerable-to
us is the thesisof Georg Lukacs, according to whichit is the principle
of exemplificationproper to "great,""realistic"art whichmakes pos-
sible the "objectiveknowingof the totalityof a historicalsituationand
the laws of historyunderlyingit." Without polemical intent,we can
now emphasize what these two positions-despite all the differences
crucialto an evaluation-have in common: both set "literature"apart
fromthe totalityof the overall historicalprocess; both envisage it as
a medium for knowing this totality,which-unlike a view that sees
literatureas a "symptom"of history-is not really in need of spe-
cialized interpretationin order to unfold its unique cognitivevalue.
UNIVERSITAT/GESAMTHOCHSCHULE SIEGEN