Estética e criminologia: estudo sobre a forma romance a partir do jovem György Lukács

Abstract

This dissertation examines the points of convergence between critical criminology and literary criticism through a reading of the early works of György Lukács, focusing on the form of the novel as a vehicle for critiquing the world of convention and its institutions. Unlike the more common approaches that connect criminology and literature by emphasizing thematic content, this study seeks to ground that relationship in the form of the artwork itself, understood as the locus capable of apprehending the social dimension within literature. The discussion begins with the Hungarian philosopher’s writings on the epic in modernity, particularly in his collection of essays Soul and Form, to trace the development of his ideas in The Theory of the Novel, where he explicitly addresses crime and punishment in the development of the great epic. Through the novel form, Lukács articulates a critique of the experience of alienation that defines the modern world. In this sense, the novel as the form that expresses “transcendental homelessness” must mediate between the solitary individual and a disenchanted world resistant to the penetration of their ideas, ultimately functioning, through its very composition, as a critique that exposes the nullity of a world governed by conventions. Furthermore, the dissertation analyzes selected novels from the typologies developed by Lukács in order to show how formal construction enables a critique of second nature. Thus, the work demonstrates how the novelistic form in Lukács makes possible a critique in the fiel of aesthetics endowed with criminological relevance.