Signatures of the Visible

by Fredric Jameson

"The visual is essentially pornographic," writes Fredric Jameson, "films ask us to stare at the world as though it were a naked body." In Signatures of the Visible , one of America's most influential critics explores film and the culture surrounding it, interrogating the relationship between the imaginative screen world and the historical world onto which it is projected. By seeking the historical dimension of the visual, Jameson evaluates the power of the filmic form as a vehicle for the critique of culture and the diagnosis of social life. Jameson pursues this investigation through readings of politics, class, allegory, magic realism, and "the historical" in such films as Diva, The Shining, and Dog Day Afternoon . Throughout the book, he is concerned with the relationship between the achievements and limits of contemporary film theory itself, "a relationship," he argues, "which allows one to take the temperature of history itself."

Genres: Film, Philosophy, Theory, Nonfiction, Art, Essays, Academic

262 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Fredric Jameson was an American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He was best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodernity and capitalism. Jameson's best-known books include Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) and The Political Unconscious (1981).

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once again, this book is lacking a definition of allegory and I'm not a Marxist so I don't really believe that everything ("The Shining" for example) can be read as an allegory for class consciousness. But it at least gives you something to talk about.

[Giuliana Angotti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is interesting but I did not enjoy the act of reading it. Jameson is not a charismatic professor and I feel that he forgets that his voice is not audible through the page as he writes, that these sentences would be easier to digest if they were being spoken to you. Instead, Jameson’s style is very verbose and dense, it’s difficult to follow and difficult to read, with a modicum of clarity that more so seems to mystify the reader into agreeing with him than actually convinces.

It was interesting to see how his points have evolved into current media. Despite being a postmodernist and this book being relatively recent, I found some of his observations to be a bit outdated for the contemporary. I’d love to see an evolution of Jamesonian theory applied to the internet for example.

[Colette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely series of essays and I appreciate Jameson's choice of films to read through here. The Syberberg essay was excellent as were the ones on The Shining and Hitchcock, those were probably the standouts to me. Very important and underappreciated contribution to the post-Deleuzian field of materialist film criticism

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 4 out of 5]

At last, a true theory of ideology (in all the marxist sense) that goes in the same line that Marx and Althusser: of course ideology is going to present a false solution to the current social and material contradictions.

[GwenViolet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The essays on the Shining and Dog Day Afternoon are good enough to make the whole collection worthwhile but some of the back half has this real "Say the line Fredric" playing the hits quality that I honestly find overly repetitious.

[Aria]

Bought this a while ago on a whim at a bedstuy cafe and bookstore lol. Finally read it on my lonely trip to Mexico City. It has led me to a total Jameson bender. I think it’s good to re-read his classics maybe every other year or something, just to remind oneself of what’s goodie.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A day's worth of reading, no more.

Always a few great ideas and insights into films like JAWS and THE SHINNING [SIC].

HPL gets a mention.

Publication 1992, so the context is real-world, not today's aca-meritocratic lala land.

[Dante]

the maelstrom of periodisation; sweep me away!

[Leonardo]

Esto nos lleva a un resultado inesperado: no se trata solo de que la fantasía encarnada en el lenguaje mudo de un edificio pueda articular la utopía de la justicia, libertad e igualdad, traicionada por las relaciones sociales reales; esta fantasía también puede articular un anhelo por la desigualdad, por una jerarquía claramente definida y por distinciones de clase. Jameson toma la película de Stanley Kubrick El resplandor, otra película centrada en la arquitectura, como un ejemplo de esta ambigüedad de los impulsos utópicos. Como todos sabemos, la película (basada en la novela de Stephen King) transcurre en un gran hotel moderno de montaña, cerrado en invierno y ocupado por una familia que lo regenta. El hotel, por supuesto, es un edificio maldito, acechado por espíritus del pasado; pero ¿qué espíritus? Es aquí donde Jamesonencuentra perturbadora la película:

"El impulso hacia la comunidad, el anhelo de una colectividad, la envidia del otro, las colectividades logradas, todo ello surge con toda la fuerza de un regreso de lo reprimido; y de esto es finalmente, creo, de lo que trata El resplandor. ¿Dónde buscar esta «comunidad conocible» a la que, incluso excluida, la fantasía de las relaciones colectivas pueda adscribirse ella misma? Sin duda no se encuentra en la burocracia directiva del propio hotel, tan multinacional y estandarizada como ciudad dormitorio o una cadena de moteles […] Donde la novela escenifica el «pasado» como un babel de voces y una poco clara ráfaga de vidas muertas de todas las generaciones de históricos habitantes de la historia del hotel, la película de Kubrick pone en primer plano y aísla un periodo único, multiplicando cada vez más las señales unificadas: esmóquines, coches deportivos, petacas, pelos engominados con raya en medio […] Esa generación, finalmente, es la de los años veinte, y son los años veinte los que persiguen y poseen al héroe. Los años veinte fueron el último momento en que una auténtica clase ociosa americana llevaba una agresiva y ostentosa existencia pública, cuando una clase dirigente americana proyectaba una conciencia de clase y una imagen sin disculpas de sí misma y disfrutaba de sus privilegios sin culpa, abiertamente, armada de sus emblemas de la chistera y la copa de champán, en el escenario social, a plena vista de las demás clases. La nostalgia de El resplandor, el anhelo por la colectividad, toma la peculiar forma de una obsesión por el último periodo en el que la conciencia de clase está desplegada abiertamente; incluso el tema del sirviente o valet expresa el deseo de una jerarquía social desvanecida, que ya no puede ser complacida en la falsa atmósfera multinacional en la que Jack Nicholson es contratado para un simple trabajo ocasional por una organización de hombres sin cara. Esto es, claramente, un vengativo «regreso de lo reprimido»: un impulso utópico que apenas se permite a sí mismo la habitual celebración complaciente y edificante, que encuentra su expresión en el mismo esnobismo y conciencia de clase que ingenuamente suponemos que amenaza." (Pág.82-98)

Viviendo en el Final de los Tiempos Pág.266-267



Jameson nos ofrece una excelente crítica de “la concepción de la cultura de masas como pura manipulación”. Sostiene que aunque la cultura de masas es “administrada”, contiene, sin embargo, posibilidades utópicas. Ver Fredric Jameson, “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture”, en Signatures of the Visible (New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 9-34.

Imperio Pág.242

[Pejman · Rating 4 out of 5]

with his rhetoric, Jameson always amazes me. In this book, he develps his previous discussion by contextualising his term 'political unconscious' in some films.

[William West]

Jameson isn't capable of being un-interesting, but I did not find this o be equal to his strongest works.