Publisher Description

Widely regarded as one of America's most important cultural theorists, Fredric Jameson has been at the forefront of the field of literary and cultural studies since the early 1970s. Author of The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act and Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Jameson is without doubt one of the leading intellectuals of our time. Fredric Jameson: Live Theory offers an invaluable and highly accessible introduction to the work of this important thinker. Ian Buchanan explores and illuminates how Jameson forms his concepts and how they operate, providing a fascinating account of Jameson's important and ongiong contributions to Critical Theory. The book provides a clear sense of his overall project and the marvellous productivity of his thinking. Motivated by a desire to inaugurate social change by illuminating the obstacles standing in its way, the aim of Jameson's work is to dishabituate us from the comfortable feeling that modern life is enhanced by the global grip of capitalism. The book concludes with a new interview with Jameson himself, in which he discusses the key themes and issues in his work and future directions for the Jamesonian project. Thematically organised, clear and accessible, Fredric Jameson: Live Theory is a key resource for anyone studying this pioneering thinker.

Author Biography

Ian Buchanan is Professor of Critical and Cultural Theory at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He is the author of A Dictionary of Critical Theory (2nd edition, 2018) and the founding editor of the international journal Deleuze and Guattari Studies.

Table of Contents

PART I: Towards a Dialectical Criticism Introduction 1. Metacommentary 2. Dialectical Criticism 3. The Political Unconscious PART II: Poetics of Social Forms Introduction 4. Brave New World Order? 5. Worlds Apart 6. One World After All Interview with Fredric Jameson

Review

mention- Book News Inc./ August 2007
"Much of the originality of Buchanan's account here lies in a chapter that maps Jameson's influences, in Sartre, Adorno, Barthes, and Brecht...The fascinating transcodings between this generation of theorist and Jameson's own is also the subject of a rare biographical interview.  Such concluding interviews are a signature of Continuum's Live Theory series...The deeper lesson of Buchanan's book may well lie in mapping the continuities of this past to the globalizing present, as Jameson's tools for dismantling the engine of history lie dormant in debates that are so often as difficult and complex as the history of the twentieth century itself." —Darren Jorgensen, University of Western Australia, Symploke, Vol. 15.1/2, 2008 -- Darren Jorgensen

Long Description

Widely regarded as one of America's most important cultural theorists, Fredric Jameson has been at the forefront of the field of literary and cultural studies since the early 1970s. Author of The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act and Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Jameson is without doubt one of the leading intellectuals of our time. Fredric Jameson: Live Theory offers an invaluable and highly accessible introduction to the work of this important thinker. Ian Buchanan explores and illuminates how Jameson forms his concepts and how they operate, providing a fascinating account of Jameson's important and ongiong contributions to Critical Theory. The book provides a clear sense of his overall project and the marvellous productivity of his thinking. Motivated by a desire to inaugurate social change by illuminating the obstacles standing in its way, the aim of Jameson's work is to dishabituate us from the comfortable feeling that modern life is enhanced by the global grip of capitalism. The book concludes with a new interview with Jameson himself, in which he discusses the key themes and issues in his work and future directions for the Jamesonian project. Thematically organised, clear and accessible, Fredric Jameson: Live Theory is a key resource for anyone studying this pioneering thinker. >

Review Quote

"Much of the originality of Buchanan's account here lies in a chapter that maps Jameson's influences, in Sartre, Adorno, Barthes, and Brecht...The fascinating transcodings between this generation of theorist and Jameson's own is also the subject of a rare biographical interview. Such concluding interviews are a signature of Continuum's Live Theory series...The deeper lesson of Buchanan's book may well lie in mapping the continuities of this past to the globalizing present, as Jameson's tools for dismantling the engine of history lie dormant in debates that are so often as difficult and complex as the history of the twentieth century itself." "Darren Jorgensen, University of Western Australia, Symploke, Vol. 15.1/2, 2008

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