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96th out of 230 books
—
200 voters
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Now in paperback, Fredric Jameson’s most wide-ranging work seeks to crystalize a definition of “postmodernism.” Jameson’s inquiry looks at the postmodern across a wide landscape, from “high” art to “low,” from market ideology to architecture, from painting to “punk” film, from video art to literature.
Paperback, 461 pages
Published
November 15th 1990
by Duke University Press Books
(first published 1989)
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If you're involved in the fields of literary, cultural, or media studies, you should read this book -- or at least the introduction and first few essays;however, be prepared for a slow and painful experience. Jameson's language is dense and his ideas are complex (to put it lightly). Before attempting to read this book you should have a basic understanding of Marxism and semiotics. I'm not saying this to sound like a hot-shot smarty pants. If someone hadn't explained these things to me first, I w...more
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I'll start by saying that Jameson knows his shit. As this qualifier suggests, there's something that needs qualifying. Throughout the book, self-awareness is a giant elephant in the room. By not taking a stance on various postmodernists (Haacke, Gehry, Claude Simon, et al), Jameson starts to function as an apologist rather than as an observer of it. Furthermore, his approach is intensely historicist, dismissing the myriad alternatives to his theory. So can anything valuable be ascertained from t...more
greg got me to read this. finished it in a laundromat in w.phila and stared into the swirling machine for an hour afterward just trying to cope.
I'm not going to lie Jameson verbally owns my ass.
Though I might not agree with his philosophy trying to argue with it is like trying to argue with The Architect in The Matrix.
You just ain't gonna win.
(Runs back to his vernacular based books as quick as he can.)
Though I might not agree with his philosophy trying to argue with it is like trying to argue with The Architect in The Matrix.
You just ain't gonna win.
(Runs back to his vernacular based books as quick as he can.)
Recently reread this book for class and it is just as amazing as ever. Though a little hard to follow at times, Jameson accurately and almost flawlessly describes the post-modern human condition.
I agree with the reviewer who said: simply read the first essay ("Culture"; which is a slightly edited version of a famous paper published in 1984), and leave it at that. There are some marvelous insights on the problem of postmodernism and the spectacularization of contemporary capitalism; but also plenty of jargon, meandering, and (not to judge) also lots of engagement with arcane theoretical issues that are way beyond my present ken. The next several chapters look like case studies, and the l...more
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I give five stars to the New Left Review article Jameson published in 1984 and which he then fleshed out into this book, which (perhaps unfairly) gets only four because it exhausted me. Read the New Left Review article, then visit this book for any cultural medium of particular interest to you, then read the Perry Anderson "The Origins of Postmodernity" and call it a day. Except even that will probably take you a week. Don't worry. It's be a good week.
I particularly like that Jameson spends so m...more
I particularly like that Jameson spends so m...more
Mar 12, 2008
Joseph
is currently reading it
I'm gonna a rip Jameson a new asshole. Strikes me as one of them God paradoxa: Can one rip Jameson an asshole when, in fact, his is the biggest asshole one can find?
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Essential Reading. Jameson's discourse is profound and necessary to navigate the postmodern cultural landscape - Read it!
Officially, half of my summer reading is completed. I'm not sure I know exactly what to say after this. I've got a much better understanding of some of the aspects of postmodernism, how Marxist analysis plays out over many different forms, what tensions exist between the two and weather they're relevant or not.
My favorite moment: Jameson pwns Paul De Man and most of deconstruction-post structuralism in one chapter, rendering it almost silly. But there is still much to be learned from this entir...more
My favorite moment: Jameson pwns Paul De Man and most of deconstruction-post structuralism in one chapter, rendering it almost silly. But there is still much to be learned from this entir...more
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Reading this, you feel that as a reader you aren't very important, and so instead of being painstaking sold an argument - as a skeptical and intelligent audience - you're merely present to hear a vaguely-themed litany of confidently-stated opinions.
I should say I didn't read every page, but skim-skipped to his conclusions on books/writers/artists/thinkers I had no familiarity with. I found nothing useful or interesting about these conclusions - that is, the reason he decides to talk about those...more
I should say I didn't read every page, but skim-skipped to his conclusions on books/writers/artists/thinkers I had no familiarity with. I found nothing useful or interesting about these conclusions - that is, the reason he decides to talk about those...more
Jameson's book is the gold standard against which I rank similar studies (Linda Hutcheon's A Poetics of Postmodernism, Jean-François Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge). Jameson's thought is complex, and this is reflected in his sentences and paragraphs, which are frequently difficult to read. However, if you have the time, it is worth rereading sentences and determining how this clause is related to that parenthetical statement--almost invariably, once you have worked out...more
Nov 14, 2010
Jacques le fataliste et son maître
added it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
saggistica,
postmoderno
Edizione (molto) accresciuta di: http://www.anobii.com/books/01b6fda02...
che diventa il primo capitolo della presente opera.
Riporto quanto dice l’autore al riguardo: «ho ristampato la mia analisi programmatica del postmoderno […] senza modifiche di rilievo, giacché l’attenzione che essa ricevette all’epoca (nel 1984) le conferisce l’interesse aggiuntivo di un documento storico; nella conclusione vengono discussi altri aspetti del postmoderno che paiono essersi imposti da allora. Ugualmente non...more
che diventa il primo capitolo della presente opera.
Riporto quanto dice l’autore al riguardo: «ho ristampato la mia analisi programmatica del postmoderno […] senza modifiche di rilievo, giacché l’attenzione che essa ricevette all’epoca (nel 1984) le conferisce l’interesse aggiuntivo di un documento storico; nella conclusione vengono discussi altri aspetti del postmoderno che paiono essersi imposti da allora. Ugualmente non...more
The best philosophical, or rather, theoretical book, I have ever read. Deep-probing and transparent speculations laid out in lucid prose (unlike most of the French or German comrades) surprisingly tend to confirm all my ideological bias ('convictions'). As if this book's ideas had all been purloined and siphoned into the others' thinking and, more importantly, into the media. All the more refreshing and sparking to read the text itself
Like a lot of academic books, this is really more of a series of articles united by a subject (postmodernism) than a single treatise--and it is better read that way. Unless you are a glutton for punishment, like me. I enjoyed and learned the most from his introduction, his chapter on architecture and his chapter on theory.
That said, I see why many treat it as such an essential text.
That said, I see why many treat it as such an essential text.
Honestly If it could fit, I would keep this text in my back pocket. I Reference it more than just about any other, and has been essential in developing my understanding of the complex dynamics contributing to Postmodernism as a dominant cultural form of production. Dense, but the incredible depth of knowledge he shares is done so in a way that Is both effective and rewarding.
Clarity of insight is not Jameson's contribution to the world and neither is the stuff found in this book particularly earth-shattering. But the general thrust of his arguments regarding aesthetics and reification is important.
Jameson's magnum opus. Postmodernism + Late Capitalism = Our current Situation. Granted it is a bit dated now, but you'll need this to understand where we are now.
A lot of interesting ideas, but Jameson's writing style, naturally enough, is overly academic, which can get annoying at times.
When I stumbled on those all-too-rare fragments I could make any vague sense of (usually about Marx), I found this very, very interesting. It may be easier if you've read more then I have out of the dozens if not hundreds of novels, philosophy texts, and so on that he references. I've never even heard of half the people he seems to assume the reader is familiar with. I would be interested to read other pieces by Jameson if they focus in territory I'm more familiar with, but I'm pretty sure his w...more
Jan 16, 2009
Wendy smith
marked it as to-read
on my shelf as a "should read this," but part of me actually wants to...
that's the good stuff
aihwa/space
aihwa/space
"seminal" essay by F.J.
cultural theory
May 29, 2007
B Strand
is currently reading it
Vocab:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cratylism Cratylism] - A philosophy taking after the Platonic dialogue of Cratylus, in which Cratylus argues that language is natural rather than conventional.
"It thus turns out that it is not only in love, cratylism, and botany that the supreme act of nomination wields a material impact and, like lightning striking from the superstructure back to the base, fuses its unlikely materials into a gleaming lump or lava surface."
--Introduction p. xiii
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cratylism Cratylism] - A philosophy taking after the Platonic dialogue of Cratylus, in which Cratylus argues that language is natural rather than conventional.
"It thus turns out that it is not only in love, cratylism, and botany that the supreme act of nomination wields a material impact and, like lightning striking from the superstructure back to the base, fuses its unlikely materials into a gleaming lump or lava surface."
--Introduction p. xiii
Oy vey.
A never-ending reading... Fredric Jameson's writing is the sort that should be re-read constantly to help us understand what's going on in society.
Mar 25, 2009
Paul
is currently reading it
Too long, too difficult--and too worthwhile to ignore. Even if one isn't interested in post-Marxist dialogues at the end of the 20th century--and I'm not, or only to a certain point which Jameson reaches on about page three--there's enough ideas for everyone and anyone in this book about what happened and is happening in American culture after WWII.
Dec 06, 2008
Vip Vinyaratn
marked it as to-read
Am I "currently-reading" this book; or am I just wishing to read it... --"
I am still not sure if this is a genuine phenomenon or some sort of late 20th century pastiche.
Jameson's thesis is convincing, as convincing as anything can be once you have discarded all the props and structures which made Modernism a viable world view.
Still worth reading.
Jameson's thesis is convincing, as convincing as anything can be once you have discarded all the props and structures which made Modernism a viable world view.
Still worth reading.
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Fredric Jameson (born 14 April 1934) is an American literary critic and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends—he once described postmodernism as the spatialization of culture under the pressure of organized capitalism. Jameson's best-known books include Postmodernism: The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, The Political Unconscious, and Marxi...more
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“Insofar as the theorist wins, therefore, by constructing an increasingly closed and terrifying machine, to that very degree he loses, since the critical capacity of his work is thereby paralysed, and the impulses of negation and revolt, not to speak of those of social transformation, are increasingly perceived as vain and trivial in the face of the model itself.”
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