annotated source: 02.29

Lukacs, Georg. "Soul and Form." Translated by Anna Bostock. Cambridge: Mit Press.

Lukacs was a Hungarian philosopher (Marxist philosopher) and literary critic, and this essay was published in 1911. This wasn't the most fascinating essay/article to read, but it was useful to read because it talked in detail about the differences between essayists and critics. It talks about life versus living, that both are useful but can't be effective at the same time--to tell you the honest truth, I had no idea what he was talking about when he said that. My favorite part, though, was when he said this:

The essayist needs form only as lived experience and he needs only its life, only the living soul-reality in contains. But this reality is to be found in every immediate sensual expression of life, it can be read out of and read into every such experience; life itself can be lived and given form through such a scheme of lived experience. 


The idea of the essayist giving form to life is wonderful concept. To me, it refers to the essayist's meditating on and giving meaning to life's experiences. He says that the critic's "moment of destiny...is that moment at which things become forms." Thus, the critic's job to comment upon form; the essayist, on the other hand, gives form to life. This will help my project because any piece of information that helps me understand the role of an essayist will help me as a writer.