The Literary Encyclopedia
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ernst Bloch
(1885-1977)

Active: 1905-1977 in Switzerland, France, Continental Europe; USA, North America

By Ruth Starkman (University of San Francisco)

Indexing Data:

  • Active In: Switzerland, France, Continental Europe; USA, North America
  • Born In: Germany, Continental Europe
  • Activity: Philosopher, Literary Critic

Life, Works and Times

Related Articles

Related Groups

Reader Actions

[...] but the essence of the world is cheerful spirit and the urge to creative shaping: the Thing In Itself is objective imagination.
(Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope)

Utopia [...] is not yet in the sense of a possibility; that it could be there if we could only do something for it.
(Ernst Bloch in conversation with Theodor W. Adorno, “Something’s Missing”.)

Ernst Bloch was a highly original and equally controversial social thinker who during his lifetime ranked among the prominent philosophers of Europe.  A pre-Frankfurt School, non-dogmatic Marxist theorist, Bloch took inspiration from a wide array of sources: fin-de-siècle

This article in full comprises 2753 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

First published 10 April 2006

Citation: Starkman, Ruth. "Ernst Bloch". The Literary Encyclopedia. 10 April 2006.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=448, accessed 9 February 2010.]

This article is copyright to ©The Literary Encyclopedia. For information on making internet links to this page and electronic or print reproduction, please click here.