Representing Capital: A Reading of Volume One [Hardcover]

Fredric Jameson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2011

A radical rereading of Marx’s central work by the prolific cultural theorist and philosopher.

Representing Capital, Fredric Jameson’s first book-length engagement with Marx’s magnum opus, is a unique work of scholarship that records the progression of Marx’s thought as if it were a musical score. The textual landscape that emerges is the setting for paradoxes and contradictions that struggle toward resolution, giving rise to new antinomies and a new forward movement. These immense segments overlap each other to combine and develop on new levels in the same way that capital itself does, stumbling against obstacles that it overcomes by progressive expansions, which are in themselves so many leaps into the unknown.

Marx’s fundamental concepts are not presented philosophically, or in social-scientific terms, but rather as a series of figures produced by the development of the text. Jameson grasps Marx’s work as a representational problem and an experiment in constructing the figure or model of the inexpressible phenomenon that is capital.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Fredric Jameson is America’s leading Marxist critic. A prodigiously energetic thinker whose writings sweep majestically from Sophocles to science fiction.” (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: 176 pages
• Publisher: Verso (June 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844674541
• ISBN-13: 978-1844674541
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #277,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dialectical is as dialectical does... October 11, 2011

By Lost Lacanian VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

In "Marxism and Form," Fredric Jameson claims (and I am paraphrasing here) that dialectical thought comes down to writing dialectical sentences. It follows that to reconstruct the dialectical movements of Marx's Capital, one must be willing, indeed able, to read the dialectical structure of his sentences well. So, even while Jameson claims his book is not a "literary" interpretation of Marx's magnum opus, thus resurrecting the tired and damaging debates among the people about base and superstructure, I would argue that only a literary scholar as brilliant as Jameson could have given us Representing Capital, as the issue comes down to dialectical reading.
I have read Capital, and I would advise reading Capital before picking up this book, but I have approached it from mainly two disciplinary points of view: sociology and philosophy. The argument Jameson gives us very much diverges from, say, Harvey's Limits to Capital, where the focus is very much on Marx's theory of society under capitalism. In this book, Jameson focuses on the very dialectical, thus totalizing, movement of Marx's thought, as he tries to grasp all of capitalism at once. So, for example, we learn that Machinery is one of the major plot points of Capital, and that the whole entire book is a meditation on the structural necessity of Unemployment. For me, these were very enriching thoughts. They added a new dimension to Capital, one that has been simply ignored by other theorists. I wouldn't claim Jameson's trumps, say, Harvey's interpretation, but that they both supplement something lacking in the other, and thus should be read together.
If you are dogmatically committed to Capital for its M-C-M' formula, then you will be annoyed by this work. But if you want to understand Capital in all of its dialectical richness, then I think you will benefit from supplementing your library with this book.
As a side note, I was skeptical about this book at first, not because of this issue of the literary (I think Marxism suffers in general for making this science v. culture/philosophy thing an issue in the first place), but because I felt that Jameson was in the twilight of his career, and was simply squaring unfinished business. He has never written a treatise on Marx, and so it made sense to me that after finishing two projects on Hegel, he would turn to Marx. But if it was perfunctory, then I was unsure of how strong the book would be. Let me say, this is a very strong book indeed--one of Jameson's best. It is very clear to me that far from the twilight, Jameson is entering his most productive phase yet. It is as if, the question of postmodernism side tracked him for a while, and now he is returning to questions that had been lingering for a long time. In any case, I think Representing Capital stands side by side with works like Postmodernism or Political Unconscious--a stunning example of dialectical thought.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Marx, the Second Great Economist December 7, 2011

By Gregory Alan Wingo

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Jameson has accomplished the rehabilitation of Karl Marx in our post-socialist world. Marx' immense contributions to the study of economics have long been overshadowed by his political writings. Dr. Jameson analysis of Capital Vol. I focuses on Marx the scientist and reveals how a scientific reading of the work provides a clearer understanding of the second era of globalization and the Great Recession.

While he concentrates on Marx' theme of the inherent need for unemployment in the capitalist system Jameson also highlights Marx' discussions on the importance of technological innovation and market expansionism in our economic processes. Both Jameson's and Marx' critiques of the welfare state, social democracy, and imperialism are illuminating for students of the modern and postmodern periods.

Whether you have read Capital Vol I or not this is a must read for those of us searching for our place and role in the 21st century.

16 of 35 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Semiotic Cultural Study July 28, 2011

By tigerdog

Format:Hardcover

First of all the good news: Fredric Jameson rightly focuses on Capital Volume One as the definitive work of Karl Marx (in this he follows many Marxist scholars including David Harvey and Ernest Mandel); secondly the book is slim (running to just 151 pages). The problem, is that by running Marx's economic ideas through the prism of his own super intellectual version of post-structuralist thought; the very simple economic principles are obfuscated, and we are left with a cultural studies version of Marx's great work. In fact Marx's Capital: A Critique of Political Economy: 1 (Penguin Classics) can be read as it was meant to be read (a work of radical political economy building on the principles of Adam Smith and David Ricardo); and the leading Marxist economist (Ernest Mandel) offers the reader a superb introduction to the text Capital: Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy (Penguin Classics). Avoid the Jameson unless you want a semiotic cultural analysis.