The Ideologies of Theory

by Fredric Jameson

Ideologies of Theory , updated and available for the first time in a single volume, brings together theoretical essays that span Fredric Jameson’s long career as a critic. They chart a body of work suspended by the twin poles of literary scholarship and political history, occupying a space vibrant with the tension between critical exegesis and the Marxist intellectual tradition. Jameson’s work pushes out the boundaries of the text, making evident the interaction between literature and the disciplines of psychoanalysis, philosophy and cultural theory, all of which are shown to be inseparable from their ideological milieu.

The essays in this volume track a shift from ideological analysis to the phenomenology of everyday life, and constitute a rigorous and passionate argument for the necessity of theory as the simultaneous critique of empiricism and idealist philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Theory

680 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1988

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

[Hossein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A basic need to study Jameson deeply. Study before reading books like the Political Unconscious

[Leonardo]

Fredric Jameson sostiene que las luchas sociales de los ´60 en el Primer Mundo, particularmente en Estados Unidos y Francia, siguieron en la línea de (e incluso derivaron) los poderosos movimientos de descolonización y liberación del Tercer Mundo durante los ´50 y ´60. Ver Fredric Jameson, “Periodizing the ´60s”, en Ideologies of Theory: Essays, 1971-1986 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988), 2:178-208, esp. pp. 180-186.

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