Fredric Jameson
Fredric Jameson | |
---|---|
Marxist hermeneutics[1] | |
Main interests | Marxist literary criticism · Marxist cultural analysis · Postmodernism · modernism · science fiction · utopia · history · narrative · cultural studies · dialectics · structuralism |
Notable ideas | Cognitive mapping · national allegory · political unconscious |
Fredric Jameson (born April 14, 1934) is an American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodernity and capitalism. Jameson's best-known books include Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991)[3] and The Political Unconscious (1981).
Jameson is the Knut Schmidt-Nielsen Professor of Comparative Literature, Professor of Romance Studies (French), and Director of the Institute for Critical Theory at Duke University.[4] In 2012, the Modern Language Association gave Jameson its sixth Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement.[5]
Life and works
Jameson was born in Cleveland, Ohio,[6] and graduated in 1950 from Moorestown Friends School.[7]
After graduating in 1954 from
Early works
Auerbach would prove to be a lasting influence on Jameson's thought. This was already apparent in Jameson's
Jameson's work focused on the relation between the style of Sartre's writings and the political and ethical positions of his existentialist philosophy. The occasional Marxian aspects of Sartre's work were glossed over in this book; Jameson would return to them in the following decade.[9]: 29–30
Jameson's dissertation, though it drew on a long tradition of European cultural analysis, differed markedly from the prevailing trends of Anglo-American academia (which were empiricism and logical positivism in philosophy and linguistics, and New Critical formalism in literary criticism). It nevertheless earned Jameson a position at Harvard University, where he taught during the first half of the 1960s.
Research into Marxism
His interest in Sartre led Jameson to intense study of
Jameson's shift toward Marxism was also driven by his increasing political connection with the
While the
Narrative and history
History came to play an increasingly central role in Jameson's interpretation of both the reading (consumption) and writing (production) of literary texts. Jameson marked his full-fledged commitment to Hegelian-Marxist philosophy with the publication of The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act, the opening slogan of which is "always historicize" (1981). The Political Unconscious takes as its object not the literary text itself, but rather the interpretive frameworks by which it is now constructed. It emerges as a manifesto for new activity concerning literary narrative.
The book's argument emphasized history as the "ultimate horizon" of literary and cultural analysis. It borrowed notions from the structuralist tradition and from
Jameson's establishment of history as the only pertinent factor in this analysis, which derived the categories governing artistic production from their historical framework, was paired with a bold theoretical claim. His book claimed to establish Marxian literary criticism, centered in the notion of an artistic mode of production, as the most all-inclusive and comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding literature.[15] According to Vincent B. Leitch, the publication of The Political Unconscious "rendered Jameson the leading Marxist literary critic in America."[16]
Critique of postmodernism
In 1984, during his tenure as Professor of Literature and History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Jameson published an article titled "Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" in the journal New Left Review. This controversial article, which Jameson later expanded into a book, was part of a series of analyses of postmodernism from the dialectical perspective Jameson had developed in his earlier work on narrative. Jameson viewed the postmodern "skepticism towards metanarratives" as a "mode of experience" stemming from the conditions of intellectual labor imposed by the late capitalist mode of production.[further explanation needed]
Postmodernists claimed that the complex differentiation between "spheres" or fields of life (such as the political, the social, the cultural, the commercial), and between distinct social classes and
In his view, postmodernity's merging of all discourse into an undifferentiated whole was the result of the colonization of the cultural sphere, which had retained at least partial autonomy during the prior modernist era, by a newly organized
Two of Jameson's best-known claims from Postmodernism are that postmodernity is characterized by pastiche and a crisis in historicity. Jameson argued that parody (which implies a moral judgment or a comparison with societal norms) was replaced by pastiche (collage and other forms of juxtaposition without a normative grounding). Relatedly, Jameson argued that the postmodern era suffers from a crisis in historicity: "there no longer does seem to be any organic relationship between the American history we learn from schoolbooks and the lived experience of the current, multinational, high-rise, stagflated city of the newspapers and of our own everyday life".[17]
Jameson's analysis of postmodernism attempted to view it as historically grounded; he therefore explicitly rejected any moralistic opposition to postmodernity as a cultural phenomenon, and continued to insist upon a Hegelian immanent critique that would "think the cultural evolution of late capitalism dialectically, as catastrophe and progress all together".[18] His refusal to simply dismiss postmodernism from the onset, however, was misinterpreted by some Marxist intellectuals as an implicit endorsement of postmodern views.
Recent work
Jameson's later writings include Archaeologies of the Future, a study of utopia and science fiction, launched at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, in December 2005, and The Modernist Papers (2007), a collection of essays on modernism that is meant to accompany the theoretical A Singular Modernity (2002) as a "source-book". These books, along with Postmodernism and The Antinomies of Realism (2013),[19] form part of an ongoing study entitled The Poetics of Social Forms, which attempts, in Sara Danius's words, to "provide a general history of aesthetic forms, at the same time seeking to show how this history can be read in tandem with a history of social and economic formations".[20] As of 2010, Jameson intends to supplement the already published volumes of The Poetics of Social Forms with a study of allegory entitled Overtones: The Harmonics of Allegory.[21] The Antinomies of Realism won the 2014 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism.[22]
Alongside this continuing project, he has recently published three related studies of
An overview of Jameson's work, Fredric Jameson: Live Theory, by Ian Buchanan, was published in 2007.
Holberg International Memorial Prize
In 2008, Jameson was awarded the annual
Lyman Tower Sargent Distinguished Scholar Award
In 2009, Jameson was awarded the Lyman Tower Sargent Distinguished Scholar Award by the North American Society for Utopian Studies.
Influence in China
Jameson has had an influence on the theorization of the postmodern in China. In mid-1985, shortly after the beginning of the cultural fever (early 1985 to
The caustic edge of Jameson's theory, which had described postmodernism as "the cultural logic of late capitalism," was abandoned for a contented or even enthusiastic endorsement of mass culture, which [a certain group of Chinese critics] saw as a new space of popular freedom. According to these critics, intellectuals, who conceived of themselves as the bearers of modernity, were reacting with shock and anxiety at their loss of control with the arrival of postmodern consumer society, uttering cries of "quixotic hysteria," panic-stricken by the realization of what they had once called for during the eighties.[26]
The debate fueled by Jameson, and specifically Postmodernism and Cultural Theories, over postmodernism was at its most intense from 1994 to 1997, carried on by Chinese intellectuals both inside and outside the mainland; particularly important contributions came from Zhao Yiheng in London, Xu Ben in the United States, and Zhang Xudong, also in the United States, who had gone on to study under Jameson as a doctoral student at Duke.[26]
Publications
- Sartre: The Origins of a Style. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1961.
- Marxism and Form: Twentieth Century Dialectical Theories of Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1971.
- The Prison-House of Language: A Critical Account of Structuralism and Russian Formalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1972. for more info see:[1]
- Fables of Aggression: Wyndham Lewis, the Modernist as Fascist. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1979. Reissued: 2008 (Verso)
- The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 1981.
- Postmodernism and Cultural Theories (Chinese: 后现代主义与文化理论; pinyin: Hòuxiàndàizhǔyì yǔ wénhuà lǐlùn). Tr. Tang Xiaobing. Xi'an: Shaanxi Normal University Press. 1987.
- The Ideologies of Theory. Essays 1971–1986. Vol. 1: Situations of Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1988.
- The Ideologies of Theory. Essays 1971–1986. Vol. 2: The Syntax of History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1988.
- Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature. Derry: Field Day, 1988. A collection of three Field Day Pamphlets by Fredric Jameson, Terry Eagleton and Edward Said.
- Late Marxism: Adorno, or, The Persistence of the Dialectic. London & New York: Verso. 1990.
- Signatures of the Visible. New York & London: Routledge. 1990.
- Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 1991.
- The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1992.
- The Seeds of Time. The Wellek Library lectures at the University of California, Irvine. New York: Columbia University Press. 1994.
- Brecht and Method. London & New York: Verso. 1998. Reissued: 2011 (Verso)
- The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983–1998. London & New York: Verso. 1998. Reissued: 2009 (Verso)
- The Jameson Reader. Ed. Michael Hardt and Kathi Weeks. Oxford: Blackwell. 2000.
- A Singular Modernity: Essay on the Ontology of the Present. London & New York Verso. 2002.
- Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London & New York: Verso. 2005.
- The Modernist Papers. London & New York Verso. 2007.
- Jameson on Jameson: Conversations on Cultural Marxism. Ed. Ian Buchanan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2007.
- The Ideologies of Theory. London & New York: Verso. 2009. (One-volume edition, with additional essays)
- Valences of the Dialectic. London & New York: Verso. 2009.
- The Hegel Variations: On the Phenomenology of Spirit. London & New York: Verso. 2010.
- Representing 'Capital': A Reading of Volume One. London & New York: Verso. 2011.
- The Antinomies of Realism. London & New York: Verso. 2013.
- The Ancients and the Postmoderns: On the Historicity of Forms. London & New York: Verso. 2015.
- An American Utopia: Dual Power and the Universal Army. Ed. Slavoj Žižek. London and New York: Verso. 2016.
- Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality. London and New York: Verso. 2016.
- Allegory and Ideology. London and New York: Verso. 2019.
- The Benjamin Files. London and New York: Verso. 2020.
- Mimesis, Expression, Construction: Fredric Jameson's Seminar on Aesthetic Theory. Repeater. 2024
- Inventions of a Present : The Novel in its Crisis of Globalization. London and New York: Verso. 2024
- The Years of Theory: Postwar French Thought to the Present. Ed. Carson Welch. London and New York: Verso. 2024
See also
References
- ^ Mohanty, Satya P. "Jameson's Marxist Hermeneutics and the need for an Adequate Epistemology." In Literary Theory and the Claims of History: Postmodernism, Objectivity, Multicultural Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997, pp. 93–115.
- ^ David Kaufmann, "Thanks for the Memory: Bloch, Benjamin and the Philosophy of History," in Not Yet: Reconsidering Ernst Bloch, ed. Jamie Owen Daniel and Tom Moylan (London and New York: Verson, 1997), p. 33.
- OCLC 948832273.
- ^ "Fredric Jameson". Duke University – Scholars@Duke. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
- ^ "Fredric Jameson to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award". Today.duke.edu. December 4, 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
- ^ Roberts, Adam (2000). Fredric Jameson (Routledge Critical Thinkers). London: Routledge. p. 2.
- ^ Bellano, Anthony. "Moorestown Friends School Alum Wins Capote Award for Book on Realism; Frederic Jameson won $30,000 for his book The Antinomies of Realism.", Moorestown Patch, November 11, 2014. Accessed May 18, 2020.
- ^ Michael Hardt and Kathi Weeks, "Introduction" to Fredric Jameson, The Jameson Reader, ed. Hardt and Weeks, Oxford: Blackwell, 2000, p. 5.
- ^ a b Buchanan, Ian (2006). Fredric Jameson: Live Theory. London and New York: Continuum.
- ^ Fredric Jameson, "Interview with Srinivas Aramudan and Ranjanna Khanna," in Jameson on Jameson: Conversations on Cultural Marxism, ed. Ian Buchanan (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), p. 204.
- ^ "A Short History of the MLG — MLG". Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-691-01311-4. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
- ^ Jameson, Fredric. The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1982., p. 76
- ^ Kristeva, Julia. "Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art". Ed. Leon S. Roudiez. Trans. Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia UP, 1980. pp. 2, 36.
- ^ Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 10
- ^ Vincent B. Leitch, American Literary Criticism from the 1930s to the 1980s, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 382.
- ^ Jameson, Fredric (November 21, 2023). "Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" (PDF). p. 69. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 3, 2023.
- ^ Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991, p. 47.
- ^ Fredric Jameson, The Antinomies of Realism, London and New York: Verso, 2013, p. 11.
- ^ Sara Danius, "About Fredric R. Jameson" Archived October 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Cf. Postmodernism xxii; The Modernist Papers x; A Singular Modernity, copyright page; Archaeologies of the Future 15n8.
- ^ Fredric Jameson, The Hegel Variations, London and New York: Verso, 2010, p. 126, n. 41. Cf. Fredric Jameson, The Antinomies of Realism, London and New York: Verso, 2013, p. 37, n. 13.
- ^ "Fredric Jameson receives Truman Capote Award", Iowa Now, May 23, 2014.
- ^ "Professor Fredric R. Jameson awarded Holberg Prize 2008". Norway.org. September 16, 2008. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
- ^ "American cultural theorist awarded the Holberg Prize". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway). Retrieved August 4, 2011.
- JSTOR 466367.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84467-535-7. Preview.
- ^ a b c Wang Ning. "The Mapping of Chinese Postmodernity." Postmodernism and China. Ed. Arif Dirlik and Xudong Zhang. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.
- ISBN 978-1-84467-535-7. Preview.
- Previously published, in an earlier version, as Hui, Wang (November–December 2000). "Fire at the castle gate". New Left Review. II (6). New Left Review: 69–99.
Further reading
- Ahmad, Aijaz. "Jameson's Rhetoric of Otherness and the 'National Allegory'". In In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. London and New York: Verso. 1992. 95–122.
- Anderson, Perry. The Origins of Postmodernity. London and New York: Verso. 1998.
- Arac, Jonathan. "Frederic Jameson and Marxism." In Critical Genealogies: Historical Situations for Postmodern Literary Studies. New York: Columbia University Press. 1987. 261–279.
- Balakrishnan, Gopal (November–December 2010). "The coming contradiction". New Left Review. II (66). New Left Review.
- Buchanan, Ian. Fredric Jameson: Live Theory. London and New York: Continuum. 2006.
- Burnham, Clint. The Jamesonian Unconscious: The Aesthetics of Marxist Theory. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 1995.
- Carp, Alex. "On Fredric Jameson." Jacobin (magazine) (March 5, 2014).
- Davis, Mike (May–June 1985). "Urban renaissance and the spirit of postmodernism". New Left Review. I (151). New Left Review: 106–113.
- Day, Gail. Dialectical Passions: Negation in Postwar Art Theory. New York: Columbia University Press. 2011.
- Dowling, William C. Jameson, Althusser, Marx: an Introduction to the Political Unconscious. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1984.
- Eagleton, Terry. "Fredric Jameson: the Politics of Style." In Against the Grain: Selected Essays 1975–1985. London: Verso, 1986. 65–78.
- Eagleton, Terry (September–October 2009). "Jameson and Form". New Left Review. II (59). New Left Review: 123–137.
- Gatto, Marco. Fredric Jameson: neomarxismo, dialettica e teoria della letteratura. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino. 2008.
- Helmling, Stephen. The Success and Failure of Fredric Jameson: Writing, the Sublime, and the Dialectic of Critique. Albany: State University of New York Press. 2001.
- Homer, Sean. Fredric Jameson: Marxism, Hermeneutics, Postmodernism. New York: Routledge. 1998.
- Hullot-Kentor, Robert. "Suggested Reading: Jameson on Adorno". In Things Beyond Resemblance: Collected Essays on Theodor W. Adorno. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. 220–233.
- Irr, Caren and Ian Buchanan, eds. On Jameson: From Postmodernism to Globalization. Albany: State University of New York Press. 2005.
- Kellner, Douglas, ed. Jameson/Postmodernism/Critique. Washington, DC: Maisonneuve Press. 1989.
- Kellner, Douglas, and Sean Homer, eds. Fredric Jameson: a Critical Reader. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2004.
- Kunkel, Benjamin. "Into the Big Tent". London Review of Books 32.8 (April 22, 2010). 12–16.
- LaCapra, Dominick. "Marxism in the Textual Maelstrom: Fredric Jameson's The Political Unconscious." In Rethinking Intellectual History. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1983. 234–267.
- Link, Alex. "The Mysteries of Postmodernism, or, Fredric Jameson's Gothic Plots." Theorising the Gothic. Eds. Jerrold E. Hogle and Andrew Smith. Special issue of Gothic Studies 11.1 (2009): 70–85.
- Millay, Thomas J. "Always Historicize! On Fredric Jameson, the Tea Party, and Theological Pragmatics." The Other Journal 22 (2013).
- Osborne, Peter. "A Marxism for the Postmodern? Jameson's Adorno". New German Critique56 (1992): 171–192.
- Roberts, Adam. Fredric Jameson. New York: Routledge, 2000.
- Iona Singh (2004) Vermeer, materialism, and the transcendental in art, Rethinking Marxism, 16:2, 155–171, DOI: 10.1080/08935690410001676212
- Tally, Robert T. Fredric Jameson: The Project of Dialectical Criticism. London: Pluto, 2014.
- Tally, Robert T. "Jameson's Project of Cognitive Mapping." In Social Cartography: Mapping Ways of Seeing Social and Educational Change. Ed. Rolland G. Paulston. New York: Garland, 1996. 399–416.
- Weber, Samuel. "Capitalising History: Notes on The Political Unconscious." In The Politics of Theory. Ed. Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, Margaret Iversen, and Diana Loxley. Colchester: University of Essex Press. 1983. 248–264.
- West, Cornel. "Fredric Jameson's Marxist Hermeneutics." Boundary 2 11.1–2 (1982–83). 177–200.
- White, Hayden. "Getting Out of History: Jameson's Redemption of Narrative." In The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1987. 142–168.