The Dialectical Image of Caricature: Eduard Fuchs and the March Revolution of 1848

The work of the Marxist cultural historian Eduard Fuchs (1870-1940) has been criticised for its inconsistent application of historical materialism to the fields of caricature and erotica. Although this criticism does have some merit, the question of whether Fuchs treats caricature in a dialectical fashion remains insufficiently answered. To address this I examine Fuchs' early study on the caricature of 1848, published on the fiftieth anniversary of the Revolution. My approach is also grounded in historical materialism, and uses the concept of the dialectical image to re-evaluate the interaction of image and text in his publications. My goals in this research are therefore twofold: first, to define the dialectical image and demonstrate how caricature presents a dialectical image of the past; and secondly, to determine to what degree Fuchs has achieved this in his study of the caricature of 1848.