Abstract: Lukács had a very clear understanding of modern society from his youth. On the one hand, he was convinced that the official culture of Hungary was backward and meaningless; on the other hand, he remained vigilant about the modern western capitalist culture that everyone was yearning for at that time. He ruthlessly exposed and criticized the dark and sinful modern capitalism, and meanwhile actively sought to rebuild the world that had lost its totality to prevent human society from plunging into a more hopeless abyss. Whether from his early works or from his later thoughts, we can find that Lukács was more than a literary theorist and aesthetician. He was never content to explore various art forms and artistic characteristics, but paid more attention to the ultimate metaphysical issues such as the essence of our existence, the value of life, and the totality of culture.

Key words: Lukács, cultural crisis, modern drama, art’s salvation, totality of culture