with Anna Schubertová (Charles University in Prague)

“Realism” has been a highly contested concept in literary theory throughout the 20th century. In his influential essay “On Realism in Art,” Roman Jakobson famously criticises the term’s “uncritical use,” arguing that it has had “fateful consequences” for the study of literature. He ultimately suggests that the concept has become so broad and contradictory that we might be better off dispensing with it entirely. In stark contrast, Georg Lukács treats realism as a universal standard for artistic representation and criticises modernist literature for abandoning it. These two positions—one inflating the term into a universal norm, the other rejecting it altogether—constitute paradigmatic 20th-century theoretical responses to realism.

The theoretical conflict between these approaches has been linked to broader intellectual and political developments such as the “Cultural Cold War,” the program of socialist realism, or the affinity between modernist movements and literary theory. In her presentation, Schubertová aims to shed new light on this longstanding conflict by relating it to alternative and mutually opposing models of narrative form in Russian Formalism and Lukács’ theory. Building on Galin Tihanov’s concept of “regimes of relevance” and David E. Wellbery’s distinction between endogenous and constructivist models of form, the lecture reframes the debate as part of a broader conflict over the nature of modern literatury form during the transition from the 19th to the 20th-century—a conflict in which both the Formalists and Lukács actively participated.

Anna Schubertová is a PhD candidate at Charles University in Prague and a researcher at the Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences. She is affiliated with the Literature & Society Laboratory, where she collaborates with an interdisciplinary team to develop a new theoretical framework for exploring the relationship between literature and society. Her doctoral dissertation, "The Invisible Form: Theories of Realism in the 20th Century", examines key theoretical contributions to realism, emphasising György Lukács, Theodor Adorno, Russian Formalists, and Roland Barthes.

Friday 6th of june 2025, from 2pm to 4pm

Salle des Commissions de la MSH
Bât. R - Niv. 4 - Salle R4.110
Av. Antoine Depage 1,
1050 Ixelles, Bruxelles

Free entrance