Customer Reviews

Literature and Revolution - By: , 27 Apr 2005
Leon Trotsky is undoubtedly one of the towering figures of the Twentieth Century. Theorist of the Permanent Revolution, leader of the October Revolution 1917, the architect of the victorious Red Armyin the ensuing civil war, Trotsky fought at the vanguard of the workers' movement as a committed Marxist for practically his entire life. Above all a man of action, Trotsky was also one of the foremost intellectuals of his generation, & this broad intellectual legacy remains as relevant as ever, especiallyin the theoretical desert which characterises the post-Stalinist landscape.

'Literature & Revolution', writtenin 1923 (and this edition with an insightful introduction by Lindsey German), constitutes an important part of both Trotsky's theoretical heritage & to the Marxist cultural debatein general. It provides a dialectical materialist conception of, amongst other things, the literature around the time of the October Revolution, its connection to the social fabric of contemporaneous Russian life, the affect of that great event on art ("he who is outside of the October perspective is utterly an hopelessly reduced to nothing"), the problems which October forced the artist to confront & the paradox of attempts to build a proletarian culture.

"Marxism...raises questions of a much more profound significance, namely, to which order of feelings does a given artistic work correspondin all its peculiarities? What are the social conditions of these thoughts & feelings? What place do they occupyin the historical development of society & a class?"

Much of the book consists of a fairly detailed analysis of the now undeservedly obscure poets of,in particular, the Russian Futurist school (quite distinct from the Italian movement), most notably Mayakovsky, & also sections on Andrei Beily, Alexsandr Blok & the anti-Marxist Formalist School. However, these analysis & polemics are interspersed with quite profound generalisations which elaborate a classical Marxist position, at all times employing a dynamic use of the key Marxist conception of the relationship between base & superstructure. For example,in The Formalist School, on the question of pure art:

"The effort to set art free from life, to declare it a craft self-sufficient unto itself devitalizes & kills art. The very need of such an operation is an unmistakable symptom of intellectual decline"

or

"To a materialist, religion, law, morals & art represent separate aspects of one & the same process of social reality. Though they differentiate themselves from their industrial basis, become complex,
strengthen & develop their special characteristicsin detail, politics, religion, law, ethics & aesthetics remain, nonetheless, functions of social man & obey the laws of his social organisation".

Another important question raised by the book is the question of "proletarian culture". The nature of the workers' revolution & state is unlike the rise & rule of the bourgeois, particularlyin relation to the development of culture.

"Can the proletariatin this time create a new culture? It is legitimate to doubt this, because the years of social revolution will be years of fierce class strugglesin which destruction will occupy more room than new construction."

The working class will reach its apotheosisin the revolutionary struggle & dictatorship. This period will inevitably be characterised by a most bitter & difficult struggle for survival & yield conditions unfavourable for the flowering of culture. And yet, as the regime becomes more stable & conditions for the creation of a new literature, culture etc. avail themselves, more & more will the successful transformation to Communist society be underway & the proletariat will lose its distinct class character. Thus Trotsky expounds the dialectic of the paradox of proletarian culture, its inevitable failure or even desirability.

Trotsky of course states all this infinitely more eloquently & clearly & anyone buying this fascinating book will not be disappointed. Trotsky was clearly very widely-read (not really much else to doin Siberian jails I suppose) & a real lover of literature, & his expert grasp of the scathingly sarcastic put-down & his frequent humour (" 'Attention! This is irony!' ") make 'Literature & Revolution' a pleasure to read. The proximity of the book's publication to real revolutionary events, along with Trotsky's accessible writing, means it escapes the dryness of much 'Western Marxism' & resultsin Marxist Cultural Theory Not Boring Shock. I recommend 'Literature & Revolution' to anyone at all interestedin literary theory or Trotsky's workin general, & it deserves to take its rightful place among Bloch, Brecht & Lukacsin the great history of Marxist cultural debate.