2nd Edition
The Political Unconscious Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act
By Fredric Jameson
Copyright 1981
320 Pages
by
Routledge
320 Pages
by
Routledge
In this ground-breaking and influential study Fredric Jameson explores the complex place and function of literature within culture. At the time Jameson was actually writing the book, in the mid to late seventies, there was a major reaction against deconstruction and poststructuralism. As one of the most significant literary theorists, Jameson found himself in the unenviable position of wanting to... Read more
PREFACE 1 On Interpretation: Literature as a Socially Symbolic Act 2 Magical Narratives: On the Dialectical Use of Genre Criticism 3 Realism and Desire: Balzac and the Problem of the Subject 4 Authentic Ressentiment: Generic Discontinuities and Ideologemes in the Experimental Novels of George Gissing 5 Romance and Reification: Plot Construction and Ideological Closure in Joseph Conrad 6 Conclusion: The Dialectic of Utopia and Ideology INDEX
Biography
Fredric Jameson (1934-). Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University and one of the most provocative and influential cultural critics of our age.
'Every now and then a book appears which is literally ahead of its time ... The Political Unconscious is such a book ... it sets new standards of what a classic work is.' - Slavoj Zizek
