Fredric Jameson Introduction Sociology YouTube Lecture Handouts

Doorsteptutor material for competitive exams is prepared by world's top subject experts: get questions, notes, tests, video lectures and more- for all subjects of your exam.

Fredric Jameson Introduction Sociology

Introduction

  • Born 1934
  • American
  • Postmodern thinker
  • Marxist theorist
  • Literary critic

Books

  • The Political Unconsciousness, 1981
  • The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983 - 1998
  • Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism , 1991
  • A Singular Modernity: Essay on the Ontology of the Present. London & New York Verso. 2002.
  • Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London & New York: Verso. 2005.
  • The Modernist Papers, 2007

Modernity vs. Post Modernity

  • Modernity
    • Abstract painting
    • High buildings
    • Modern poetry, literature, films, etc.
  • Post modernity
    • Downgraded films
    • Sci-fi based
    • Duplicates
    • mockery
  • He compared:
  • Vincent Van Gogh՚s “Peasant Shoes” as Modernity dominated work
  • Andy Warhol՚s “Diamond Dust Shoes” as post-modernity dominated work
  • Peasant shoes
    • Represents misery of peasants
    • Poverty
    • Rural areas
    • Toil and labour
    • Loneliness
  • Diamond dust shoes
    • Consumer society
    • Fetishism with commodity
    • Lack of authenticity
    • No emotions depicted
    • Random collective objects

Views on Post Modernity

  • No single reality
  • Realities are contrasting
  • Concepts are totalised
  • Fragments are accepted
  • Lack of authentic self
  • Lack of historical continuity
  • Abandons historical memories

Concept

  • A loss of our connection to history
  • A cultural form associated with a new stage in Mode of Production
  • The stages of this MoP:
    • Tribal
    • Ancient communal
    • Feudal
    • Capitalist
    • Communist (Eutopia)

Capitalist MoP

  • Consists of two elements:
    • Market capital
    • Monopoly or Imperialism
  • Both combine to become cultural capitalism

Post-Modernity as Cultural Capital

  • Late capitalism
  • Consumer society
  • Globalization
  • High science and technology
  • Historical deafness
  • No emotions

MCQs

Q.1. Frederic Jameson associated postmodern culture with ________ capitalism.

(A) market

(B) monopoly

(C) imperialist

(D) multinational

Ans D

Q.2. Match the items of List – I with those of List – II and give the correct answer from the codes given below:

List – I (Books)

a. Enchanting a disenchanted world

b. Writing and Difference

c. Post-Modernism, or the Cultural Logic of late Capitalism

d. The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language

List – II (Authors)

1. J. Derrida

2. Ritzer

3. M. Foucault

4. F. Jameson

Codes:

(A) a-2, b-3, c-1, d-4

(B) a-3, b-1, c-2, d-4

(C) a-2, b-1, c-4, d-3

(D) a-1, b-2, c-3, d-4

Answer: (C)

Manishika