On Budapest School Aesthetics: An Interview with Agnes Heller

Abstract

thank you very much for supporting my study on Budapest School's aesthetics for more than three years and for this interview on the Budapest School's aesthetics. This school of thought was formed around György Lukács during the 1960s and now plays an important role in contemporary thinking. In my understanding, members of the Budapest School including you, your husband Ferenc Fehér, György Márkus, Mihály Vajda, G. •M. •Tamás, Géza Fodor and Sándor Rádnóti are interested in aesthetics. You all have published a number of works in this field, such as your 2005 book The Immortal Comedy, Rádnóti's 1999 book The Fake: Forgery and its Place in Art, György Márkus's 1986 Language and Production and so on. You and Ferenc Fehér edited a book called Reconstructing Aesthetic: Writings of the Budapest School in 1986. Although you selected only some representative essays and parts of some books, you demonstrated quite effectively the main tendency of this school in aesthetics. But in fact, the Budapest School's aesthetics are plentiful and complicated, and extend beyond that discussion. Would you like to discuss the main thoughts of the aesthetics of the Budapest School? Are there some common ideas in the school? Why is the school concerned with the issues of aesthetics?Agnes Heller: It is difficult to sum up the essence of the aesthetic of the Budapest School, since even in the sixties and the seventies of the previous century when the members of the school intensively collaborated, each and every one developed a special, personal relation to the questions of aesthetics and art. Aesthetics was not our major interest, with the exception of Ferenc Fehér, who was engaged in literary criticism and had written

A poetical contact with Peter Beilharz through Agnes Heller

“…They undoubtedly deepen our academic research, adorn our everyday life, and stimulate mutual thinking and imagination by creatively working together. I chronicle our deep and evolving relationship in what follows.My first contact with Peter traces back to 2008 when I published an interview with Agnes Heller on the Budapest School aesthetics (Fu, 2008).I thought that, perhaps, Peter, the founder of the journal Thesis Eleven, might read the interview. I remember being at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and feeling extremely excited when I learned that my interview was published in Thesis Eleven.…”

“…My first contact with Peter traces back to 2008 when I published an interview with Agnes Heller on the Budapest School aesthetics (Fu, 2008).…”