Fredric Jameson
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Fredric Jameson (born April 14, 1934) is an American
literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary
cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...
trends, particularly his analysis of
postmodernity Postmodernity (post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist ''after'' modernity. Some schools of thought hold that modernity ended in the late 20th century – in the ...
and
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
. Jameson's best-known books include ''
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism ''Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism'' is a 1991 book by Fredric Jameson, in which the author offers a critique of modernism and postmodernism from a Marxist perspective. The book began as a 1984 article in the ''New Left Re ...
'' (1991) and ''
The Political Unconscious ''The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act'' is a 1981 book by the Marxist literary theorist Fredric Jameson. Often cited as a powerful overview and methodological guide, it is the work with which Jameson made his greatest i ...
'' (1981). Jameson is currently Knut Schmidt-Nielsen Professor of Comparative Literature and Romance Studies (French) and the director of the Center for Critical Theory at
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
. In 2012, the Modern Language Association gave Jameson its sixth Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement.


Life and works

Jameson was born in
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, Ohio, and graduated in 1950 from
Moorestown Friends School Moorestown Friends School (also known as MFS) is a private, coeducational Quaker day school located in Moorestown, in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2019–20 school year, the school had an enrollment of 652 student ...
. After graduating in 1954 from
Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...
, where his professors included
Wayne Booth Wayne Clayson Booth (February 22, 1921, in American Fork, Utah – October 10, 2005, in Chicago, Illinois) was an American literary critic. He was the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in English Language & Literature and ...
, he briefly traveled to Europe, studying at
Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
, Munich, and
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, where he learned of new developments in
continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a term used to describe some philosophers and philosophical traditions that do not fall under the umbrella of analytic philosophy. However, there is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Pri ...
, including the rise of structuralism. He returned to America the following year to pursue a
doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
at
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, where he studied under
Erich Auerbach Erich Auerbach (November 9, 1892 – October 13, 1957) was a German philologist and comparative scholar and critic of literature. His best-known work is '' Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature'', a history of repres ...
.


Early works

Auerbach would prove to be a lasting influence on Jameson's thought. This was already apparent in Jameson's
doctoral dissertation A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
, published in 1961 as ''Sartre: the Origins of a Style''. Auerbach's concerns were rooted in the German
philological Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as t ...
tradition; his works on the history of
style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...
analyzed literary form within
social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...
. Jameson would follow in these steps, examining the articulation of poetry, history,
philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
, and philosophy in the works of
Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
. Jameson's work focused on the relation between the style of Sartre's writings and the political and ethical positions of his
existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...
philosophy. The occasional Marxian aspects of Sartre's work were glossed over in this book; Jameson would return to them in the following decade. 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 In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empir ...
and
logical positivism Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...
in philosophy and
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, and New Critical
formalism Formalism may refer to: * Form (disambiguation) * Formal (disambiguation) * Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary * Formalism (linguistics) * Scie ...
in
literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
). It nevertheless earned Jameson a position at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where he taught during the first half of the 1960s.


Research into Marxism

His interest in Sartre led Jameson to intense study of
Marxist literary theory Marxism was introduced by Karl Marx. Most Marxist critics who were writing in what could chronologically be specified as the early period of Marxist literary criticism, subscribed to what has come to be called " vulgar Marxism." In this thinking ...
. Even though
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
was becoming an important influence in American
social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...
, partly through the influence of the many European intellectuals who had sought refuge from the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in the United States, such as
Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blue ...
, the literary and critical work of the
Western Marxists Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an i ...
was still largely unknown in American academia in the late-1950s and early-1960s. Jameson's shift toward Marxism was also driven by his increasing political connection with the New Left and
pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
movements, as well as by the
Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...
, which Jameson took as a sign that "Marxism was alive and well as a collective movement and a culturally productive force". His research focused on
critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
: thinkers of, and influenced by, the
Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
, such as
Kenneth Burke Kenneth Duva Burke (May 5, 1897 – November 19, 1993) was an American literary theorist, as well as poet, essayist, and novelist, who wrote on 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, and rhetorical theory. As a literary theorist, Burk ...
,
György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and ae ...
,
Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinkers ...
,
Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blue ...
,
Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...
, Herbert Marcuse, Louis Althusser, and Sartre, who viewed cultural criticism as an integral feature of Marxist theory. In 1969, Jameson co-founded the Marxist Literary Group with a number of his graduate students at the University of California, San Diego. While the
Orthodox Marxist Orthodox Marxism is the body of Marxist thought that emerged after the death of Karl Marx (1818–1883) and which became the official philosophy of the majority of the socialist movement as represented in the Second International until the Firs ...
view of ideology held that the cultural " superstructure" was completely determined by the economic "base", the Western Marxists critically analyzed culture as a historical and social phenomenon alongside economic production and distribution or political power relationships. They held that culture must be studied using the
Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
concept of
immanent critique Immanent critique is a method of analyzing culture that identifies contradictions in society's rules and systems. Most importantly, it juxtaposes the ideals articulated by society against the inadequate realization of those ideals in society's insti ...
: the theory that adequate description and criticism of a philosophical or cultural text must be carried out in the same terms that text itself employs, in order to develop its internal inconsistencies in a manner that allows intellectual advancement. Marx highlighted immanent critique in his early writings, derived from Hegel's development of a new form of dialectical thinking that would attempt, as Jameson comments, "to lift itself mightily up by its own bootstraps".


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
Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...
's work in
cultural studies Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
, and joined them to a largely Marxist view of
labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...
(whether blue-collar or intellectual) as the focal point of analysis. Jameson's readings exploited both the explicit formal and thematic choices of the writer and the unconscious framework guiding these. Artistic choices that were ordinarily viewed in purely
aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...
terms were recast in terms of historical literary practices and norms, in an attempt to develop a systematic inventory of the constraints they imposed on the artist as an individual creative subject. To further this meta-commentary, Jameson described the ''ideologeme'', or "the smallest intelligible unit of the essentially antagonistic collective discourses of social classes", the smallest legible residue of the real-life, ongoing struggles occurring between social classes. (The term "ideologeme" was first used by
Mikhail Bakhtin Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin ( ; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian philosopher, literary critic and scholar who worked on literary theor ...
and
Pavel Nikolaevich Medvedev Pavel Nikolaevich Medvedev (russian: Па́вел Никола́евич Медве́дев; in Saint Petersburg – 17 July 1938 in Leningrad) was a Russian literary scholar. He was a professor, social activist, and friend of Mikhail Bakhtin, as ...
in their work ''The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship'' and was later popularised by Julia Kristeva. Kristeva defined it as "the intersection of a given textual arrangement ... with the utterances ... that it either assimilates into its own space or to which it refers in the space of exterior texts ...".) 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 In the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (German: ''Produktionsweise'', "the way of producing") is a specific combination of the: * Productive forces: these include human labour power and means of production (tools, ...
, as the most all-inclusive and comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding literature. According to Vincent B. Leitch, the publication of ''The Political Unconscious'' "rendered Jameson the leading Marxist literary critic in America."


Critique of postmodernism

In 1984, during his tenure as Professor of Literature and
History of Consciousness History of Consciousness is the name of a department in the Humanities Division of the University of California, Santa Cruz with a 50+ year history of interdisciplinary research and student training in "established and emergent disciplines and fiel ...
at the
University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...
, Jameson published an article titled "Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" in the journal ''
New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...
''. 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
metanarrative A metanarrative (also meta-narrative and grand narrative; french: métarécit) is a narrative ''about'' narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as yet ...
s" as a "mode of experience" stemming from the conditions of intellectual labor imposed by the late capitalist mode of production. 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
role A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, moral obligation, obligations, beliefs, and social norm, norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavi ...
s within each field, had been overcome by the crisis of foundationalism and the consequent relativization of truth-claims. Jameson argued against this, asserting that these phenomena had or could have been understood successfully within a modernist framework; the postmodern failure to achieve this understanding implied an abrupt break in the dialectical refinement of thought. 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
corporate capitalism In social science and economics, corporate capitalism is a capitalist marketplace characterized by the dominance of hierarchical and bureaucratic corporations. Overview A large proportion of the economy of the United States and its labour mark ...
. Following
Adorno Theodor W. Adorno ( , ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critica ...
and Horkheimer's analysis of the
culture industry The term culture industry (german: Kulturindustrie) was coined by the critical theorists Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) and Max Horkheimer (1895–1973), and was presented as critical vocabulary in the chapter "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment ...
, Jameson discussed this phenomenon in his critical discussion of architecture, film, narrative, and visual arts, as well as in his strictly philosophical work. Two of Jameson's best-known claims from ''Postmodernism'' are that postmodernity is characterized by pastiche and a crisis in
historicity Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity denot ...
. 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". 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". 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 A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
and science fiction, launched at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, in December 2005, and ''The Modernist Papers'' (2007), a collection of essays on
modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
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), form part of an ongoing study entitled ''The Poetics of Social Forms'', which attempts, in
Sara Danius Sara Maria Danius (5 April 1962 – 12 October 2019) was a Swedish literary critic and philosopher, and a scholar of literature and aesthetics. Danius was professor of aesthetics at Södertörn University, docent of literature at Uppsala Univers ...
'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". As of 2010, Jameson intends to supplement the already published volumes of ''The Poetics of Social Forms'' with a study of
allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
entitled ''Overtones: The Harmonics of Allegory''. ''The Antinomies of Realism'' won the 2014
Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism The Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism is awarded for literary criticism by the University of Iowa on behalf of the Truman Capote Literary Trust. The value of the award is $30,000 (USD), and is said to be the largest annual cash prize for l ...
. Alongside this continuing project, he has recently published three related studies of dialectical theory: ''Valences of the Dialectic'' (2009), which includes Jameson's critical responses to Slavoj Žižek, Gilles Deleuze, and other contemporary theorists; ''The Hegel Variations'' (2010), a commentary on Hegel's ''
Phenomenology of Spirit ''The Phenomenology of Spirit'' (german: Phänomenologie des Geistes) is the most widely-discussed philosophical work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; its German title can be translated as either ''The Phenomenology of Spirit'' or ''The Phenomen ...
''; and ''Representing Capital: A Reading of Volume One'' (2011), an analysis of Marx's ''
Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...
''. 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 Holberg International Memorial Prize in recognition of his career-long research "on the relation between social formations and cultural forms". The prize, which was worth (approximately $648,000), was presented to Jameson by
Tora Aasland Tora or TORA may refer to: People * Tora (given name), female given name * Tora (surname) * Tora people of Arabia and northern Africa * Torá language, an extinct language once spoken in Brazil Places * Tora, Benin, in Borgou Department * T ...
, Norwegian Minister of Education and Research, in
Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, on 26 November 2008.


Lyman Tower Sargent Distinguished Scholar Award

In 2009, Jameson was awarded the
Lyman Tower Sargent Lyman Tower Sargent (born 9 February 1940) is an American academic, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Sargent's main academic interests are in utopian studies, political theory, American studies and ...
Distinguished Scholar Award by the North American
Society for Utopian Studies The Society for Utopian Studies (founded 1975) is a North American interdisciplinary association devoted to the study of utopianism in all its forms, with a particular emphasis on literary and experimental utopias. Publications The Society publis ...
.


Influence in China

Jameson has had influence, on the theorization of the postmodern in China. In mid-1985, shortly after the beginning of the cultural fever (early 1985 to June Fourth, 1989)—a period in Chinese intellectual history characterized in part by intense interest in Western
critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
,
literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...
, and related disciplines—Jameson discussed the idea of postmodernism in China in lectures at
Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...
and the newly founded
Shenzhen University Shenzhen University (SZU, Chinese: 深圳大学) is a municipal public research university in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. The university is funded by the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government. Location SZU comprises two campuses, Houhai ca ...
.Preview.
/ref>Wang Ning. "The Mapping of Chinese Postmodernity." ''Postmodernism and China''. Ed. Arif Dirlik and Xudong Zhang. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001. Jameson's ideas as presented at Peking University had an impact on some students, including Zhang Yiwu and Zhang Xudong, scholars whose work would come to play an important role in the analysis of postmodernity in China.Preview.
* Previously published, in an earlier version, as
In 1987 Jameson published a book entitled ''Postmodernism and Cultural Theories'' (), translated into Chinese by Tang Xiaobing. Although the Chinese intelligentsia's engagement with postmodernism would not begin in earnest until the nineties, ''Postmodernism and Cultural Theories'' was to become a keystone text in that engagement; as scholar Wang Ning writes, its influence on Chinese thinkers would be impossible to overestimate. Its popularity may be partially due to the facts that it was not written in a dense style and that, because of Jameson's writing style, it was possible to use the text to support either praise or criticism of the Chinese manifestation of postmodernity. In
Wang Chaohua Chaohua Wang is a freelance essayist and researcher, with a Ph.D. in modern Chinese literature from the University of California, Los Angeles.Sullivan,MeSurvivor of Tiananmen Square reaches her goal — a Ph.D. 3 June 2009, at ''UCLA Today'' Wa ...
's interpretation of events, Jameson's work was mostly used to support praise, in what amounted to a fundamental misreading of Jameson:
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 certain group of Chinese criticssaw 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.
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 Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
.


Publications

* * * for more info se

* Reissued: 2008 (Verso) * * ''Postmodernism and Cultural Theories'' (). Tr. Tang Xiaobing. Xi'an: Shaanxi Normal University Press. 1987. * * * ''Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature''. Derry: Field Day, 1988. A collection of three Field Day Theatre Company, Field Day Pamphlets by Fredric Jameson, Terry Eagleton and Edward Said. * * * * * * Reissued: 2011 (Verso) * Reissued: 2009 (Verso) *''The Jameson Reader''. Ed. Michael Hardt and Kathi Weeks. Oxford: Blackwell. 2000. * * * *''Jameson on Jameson: Conversations on Cultural Marxism''. Ed. Ian Buchanan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2007. * (One-volume edition, with additional essays) * * * * * * ''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.


See also

*
Dialectic Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing ...
* Dialectical materialism *
Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
*
Late capitalism Late capitalism, late-stage capitalism, or end-stage capitalism is a term first used in print by German economist Werner Sombart around the turn of the 20th century. In the late 2010s, the term began to be used in the United States and Canada t ...
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Literary realism Literary realism is a literary genre, part of the broader realism in arts, that attempts to represent subject-matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. It originated with the realist art movement that began with ...
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Literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...
*
Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
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Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
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Marxist theorists Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew f ...
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Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
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Political consciousness Following the work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx outlined the workings of a political consciousness. The politics of consciousness Consciousness typically refers to the idea of a being who is self-aware. It is a distinction often re ...
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Postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
*
Psychoanalytic sociology Psychoanalytic sociology is the research field that analyzes society using the same methods that psychoanalysis applied to analyze an individual. 'Psychoanalytic sociology embraces work from divergent sociological traditions and political perspecti ...
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Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...


References


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. * *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). * *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 Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University. Eagleton has published over forty books ...
. "Fredric Jameson: the Politics of Style." In ''Against the Grain: Selected Essays 1975–1985''. London: Verso, 1986. 65–78. * *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 Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
'', 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 Critique The ''New German Critique'' is a contemporary academic journal in German studies. It is associated with the Department of German Studies at Cornell University. It "covers twentieth century political and social theory, philosophy, literature, film, ...
56 (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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jameson, Fredric 1934 births Living people 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American philosophers American Marxists American anti-capitalists American literary critics American political philosophers American socialists American speculative fiction critics Anti-consumerists Connecticut socialists Critics of postmodernism Duke University faculty Haverford College alumni Holberg Prize laureates Marxist theorists Moorestown Friends School alumni Ohio socialists Postmodern theory Science fiction critics Science fiction fans Utopian studies scholars Writers about globalization Writers from Cleveland Yale University alumni