Lucien Goldmann: A Humanist Socialist & Genetic Structuralist
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Lucien Goldmann, born in Bucharest, Romania, pursued studies in law, political economy, literature, and philosophy at various universities, including those in Bucharest, Vienna, and Zurich. He is renowned as a humanist socialist, describing his work as both dialectical and humanist. In the 1960s, Goldmann developed the theory of "genetic structuralism," earning recognition as its founder. A Shift in Marxist Thought Goldmann, along with thinkers like Louis Althusser and Pierre Macherey, diverged from the Hegelian line of thought and embraced the structuralist movement. This movement rejected the emphasis on individual agency in favor of understanding broader systems or structures that shape individual agency. Unlike traditional Marxist views that favored humanist and historicist interpretations of Marx and emphasized authorial intention in literary texts, Althusser's structuralist Marxism rejected the idea of individual creativity. Instead, he saw texts as products of larger…