The Jameson Reader (Blackwell Readers) [Paperback]

Michael Hardt (Editor), Kathi Weeks (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0631202706 | ISBN-13: 978-0631202707 | Publication Date: July 21, 2000 | Edition: 1

This book brings together key essays and excerpts from the broad spectrum of Frederic Jameson's writings, providing an accessible introduction to the intricacies of his thought and uncovering new and exciting aspects of his work.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Fredric Jameson is one of the most provocative and influential cultural critics of our age. Analyzing and historicizing cultural phenomena, he weaves together some of the most powerful critical paradigms, including Marxism, psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism, into an original and systematic vision of the contemporary world.

The Jameson Reader, which presents essays and excerpts from the broad spectrum of his writings, will be useful for both initiates and veteran readers of his work.

For those who are new to Jameson, the Reader will provide an accessible introduction to the intricacies of his thought. Those familiar with Jameson will not only find a convenient collection of important essays, but will also inevitably discover new and exciting aspects of his work. The generous coverage given to seminal texts, such as The Political Unconscious and Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, is complemented by ample attention to lesser-known works. In addition, the editors' opening essay explores Jameson's project as a whole.

The Jameson Reader will be of interest to students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences, and to anyone who wishes to gain an insight into the work of this important cultural thinker.

About the Author

Michael Hardt teaches in the Literature Program at Duke University. His previous books include Gilles Deleuze: An Apprenticeship in Philosophy (1993), Empire (forthcoming) and with Antonion Negri he is co-author of Labor of Dionysus: A Critique of the State-form (1994).

Kathi Weeks teaches in the Politics department at Fairfield University. She is the author of Constituting Feminist Subjects (1998).

Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (July 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631202706
• ISBN-13: 978-0631202707
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #772,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marxism for this 'postmodern' time., May 21, 2001

By 

Brian Mello (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jameson Reader (Blackwell Readers) (Paperback)

Hardt and Weeks have compiled an excellent overview of Jameson's impressive volume of work. The excerpts from Jameson will prove thought-provoking to any student or activist who wants to maintain the critical praxis of Marxism, but wants to move away from its historic economic focus. Consequently, by expanding Marx's concept of the mode of production, and through insightful analyses of history, art, film, music, and architecture Jameson provides an insight into the value of Marxism for what Wendy Brown (and others) have called these postmodern times.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most scintillating thinker of our time., December 29, 2003

By 

Augustus Caesar, Ph.D. (Eugene, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jameson Reader (Blackwell Readers) (Paperback)

Fredric Jameson (b. 1934) is one of the most influential and original thinkers of our time. He first began to publish important work in the 1960s. After earning a Ph.D. in French literature at Yale in 1959, Jameson revised his dissertation and published it as "Sartre: The Origins of a Style," a book which is still one of the finest examinations of its subject.

Throughout the Sixties, Jameson read deeply in Marxist literature, from Mehring and Plekhanov to Adorno, Lukacs, and Sartre, and his extensive research and immersion in Marxism resulted in 1971's seminal "Marxism and Form," a landmark in Marxist criticism and an unsurpassed dialectical survey of the 20th century's most important communist writings. With this book, Jameson established himself as the foremost Marxist critic of his time, rivalled only by Terry Eagleton, whose approaches to criticism and the dialectic are highly disparate from Jameson's.

Jameson's interests and expertise are catholic, and his prose style, so often referred to as "difficult" or "impenetrable," has always struck me with its elegance, precision, and singularity. No one else writes sentences like him, and no other critic's prose offers as much sheer aesthetic pleasure. In his criticism, Jameson's allusions and insights are always profound and original. His powers of associative and lateral thinking are unique. Whatever his subject, from critiquing a Balzac novel to limning "The Godfather," Jameson's approach is resolutely Marxist and his dialectic fluid and densely erudite.

"The Jameson Reader" offers readers an excellent introduction to the world of Jameson's thought, with essays ranging from the state of Marxist criticism in modern academe to "narrative as a socially symbolic act." His groundbreaking examinations of postmodernism are included as well. The introduction and commentary by the editors are superb throughout.

Anyone seeking familiarity with the work of Fredric Jameson should start with "The Jameson Reader." No one looks at our modern world with a more penetrating gaze, and if any modern critic's work will last, it is his.