Suchergebnisse

In a description of the present crisis in African economy Stephen Lewis outlines the need for urgent rethinking of the shared partnership between North and South. Despite the efforts to make institutional economists and governemnts understand, he argues that the human costs of structural adjustment in Africa are just too high. (DSE)

Rampant commercialisation of publishing is casting a blight on literature. The insidious criteria of 'market realism' represent little improvement over the oppressive ukase of socialist realism. (Original abstract)

Richardson reviews 'Political Realism in International Theory' by Roger D. Spegele.

On the face of it, the title of this article must look rather odd, especially to any non-specialist who happens to light upon it. For 'Realism' surely connotes enterprises and appraisals of a realistic kind, ones which take full account of the facts and constraints of life. Accordingly, it might well be thought clearly superfluous to assert that such things, already identified as realistic, are indeed so.

The doctrine of socialist realism is presented as an outlook on artistic creation that differs considerably from current opinions about the role of art in the West, but has its own logic & rationale. Most authorities agree that socialist realism has played an important role in Soviet conceptions of literature, but the few books & articles devoted to this doctrine have concentrated mainly on historical questions. The doctrine itself has not been analyzed as a systematic aesthetic theory. A historical overview is followed by the evaluation of the components of the doctrine. Socialist realism as understood in the USSR is explicated in terms of six theses: (1) art is for the sake of society & must contribute as a positive social force; (2) to be a positive social force, it must be "realistic"; (3) man is a positive social being; (4) art must show a conviction; (5) the vision of reality is focused on the positive hero; & (6) art must be comprehensible & understood by the masses. Modified AA.