Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (Poetics of Social Forms) [Hardcover]

Fredric Jameson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Poetics of Social Forms | Publication Date: October 17, 2005

In an age of globalization characterized by the dizzying technologies of the First World, and the social disintegration of the Third, is the concept of utopia still meaningful?

Archaeologies of the Future, Jameson's most substantial work since Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, investigates the development of this form since Thomas More, and interrogates the functions of utopian thinking in a post-Communist age.

The relationship between utopia and science fiction is explored through the representations of otherness—alien life and alien worlds—and a study of the works of Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Kim Stanley Robinson and more. Jameson's essential essays, including "The Desire Called Utopia," conclude with an examination of the opposing positions on utopia and an assessment of its political value today.Archaeologies of the Future is the third volume, after Postmodernism and A Singular Modernity, of Jameson's project on the Poetics of Social Forms.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Fredric Jameson is America’s leading Marxist critic. A prodigiously energetic thinker whose writings sweep majestically from Sophocles to science fiction.... A vast treasure trove of a book.” (Terry Eagleton )

About the Author

Fredric Jameson is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University. The author of numerous books, he has over the last three decades developed a richly nuanced vision of Western culture's relation to political economy. He was a recipient of the 2008 Holberg International Memorial Prize. He is the author of many books, including Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, The Cultural Turn, A Singular Modernity, The Modernist Papers, Archaeologies of the Future, Brecht and Method, Ideologies of Theory, Valences of the Dialectic, The Hegel Variations and Representing Capital.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 431 pages
• Publisher: Verso (October 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844670333
• ISBN-13: 978-1844670338
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #782,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Histories of the Present, January 25, 2006

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Lost Lacanian (Lost-in, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (Poetics of Social Forms) (Hardcover)

What is Utopia? And what relevance does it have today? These are the questions Jameson wants to ask and answer in this, his latest and most substantial offering since "A Singular Modernity." "Archaelologies of the Future" picks up Jameson's larger project entitled "The Poetics of the Social Forms" (first hearlded in "The Political Unconscious") where he suggests that today's historical situation requires archaeologies of the future and not forecasts of the past--meaning, we must take as our political signposts a potentially different future, even if that means radically rethinking the present and seeing it as an archaic relic, instead of nostaligically clinging to the modernity project (a la Ulrich Bech or Jurgen Habermas). As such, Jameson pronounces Modernity, as a project, dead but simultaneously refuses to accept post-Modernity as the only choice, which for him would be accepting the cultural logic of late capitalism.

It is within this context that, through a rigorous examination of the form of a Utopian text (most notably: More's "Utopia"), Jameson envigorates Utopia and claims it has relevance for us today. Jameson's defense of Utopia can be seen as far back as his "Marxism and Form," while discussing Marcuse's Utopianism, Jameson affirms that Utopia--as a wild projection of a possible world--has more relevance than practical strategies. This is because Utopia relentlessly believes that an entirely new world is possible, not just piecemeal reformism.

The major thesis of this book is that Utopia's primary contribution is that it allows us to break, in thought, with the current order of things. By projecting a hypothetical future, Utopian texts allow us to think of our present as a contingent and changing time that can be broken and revamped.

The second half of the book amasses all of Jameson's writing on Utopia--minus the most recent essay "The Politics of Utopia," published in "New Left Review." I think they excluded this essay because the first half of the book basically is an extended version of the essay.

If you are someone invested in Utopian studies, then, you must read this book. If you are someone who things Utopia is simply a wishful fancy of a too ideal world to actually be lived, then, this book will give you another perspective to consider.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars continuation of utopian ideal in science fiction, November 1, 2005

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Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (Poetics of Social Forms) (Hardcover)

The leading, influential contemporary philosopher Frederic Jameson looks to the literary genre of science fiction for gleanings of the notion of utopia and utopian yearnings in late Modernism. With the failures of Marxist/Communist ideologies and the apolitical mood throughout Western culture, what remains of the idea of utopia which once played such a strong role in modern culture is to be found mostly in the science-fiction literature. Jameson takes on this latest topic with his characteristic thoroughness, exceptional acuity, and masterful synthetic capacity. The voluminous work with elements of literary critique, political/cultural analysis, and philosophical thinking is a survey of science fiction over the century of the 1900s and its shifting relationship to society. Jameson's approach is to focus on one major science-fiction writer (with science-fiction somewhat loosely defined) such as Philip K. Dick or Ursula Le Guin as representative of the topic is wants to take up; and then range through the topic by many references to other science-fiction writers and inclusion of respective aspects of the concept of utopia and relevant political, social, and scientific conditions to result in illuminations and renderings about the persisting, yet protean, idea of utopia. "Archaeologies of the Future" is one of Jameson's most wide-ranging and illuminating works on modern culture and its distinctive factors and idiosyncratic ways.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different take on Sci-Fi, September 28, 2005

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Benjamin Keane "Benjy" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (Poetics of Social Forms) (Hardcover)

As a huge science fiction fan I was excited to see that one of my favorite literary critics, Fredric Jameson, is publishing a new book of criticism that explores Utopian thinking in the works of some of the best writers in the genre: Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, etc. Now that I've read the book I feel I can recommend it for Sci-Fi fans and non-fans alike. Archaelogies of the Future is far more accesible than some of Jameson's earlier books, but it's just as essential. The writing style is straight-forward and balanced by a prodigious amount of scholarly expertise. He is constantly saying something unexpected and interesting, introducing ideas that I've never thought could be connected to Sci-Fi. He starts at the very beginning, with Thomas More's Utopia, and continues up to a review William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, which prompted me toward a whole new (favorable) opinion of that book. He makes me want to re-read every single one of the novels he writes about. Marxist criticism rules.