INTRODUCTION 7
and discussing the Marxian position in aesthetics. This can be best put in Zhou Enlai's words:
Questions are being discussed within the bounds of a socialist stand, in an endeavour to do a good job in literature and art and to properly carry out the policy in this field. On these, we each have our own views, so why can't they be discussed?
Indeed, they can be. That was all that the seminar in Kas-auli aimed at. The papers presented here are offered in the hope that this first, faltering step towards a discussion on Marxian position on aesthetics will lead to further and more fruitful discussions.
' Mao Zcdong, Selected Works, Vol I, On Contradiction, p 324.