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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Date Published: 7-1-82
ISBN-13:9780801492228ISBN:080149222X
Description: FINE. Crisp, clean, unread paperback with light to moderate edgewear/shelfwear and a "non-returnable" stamp to one edge. -Very Good! 0.8 lbs. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9780801492228ISBN:080149222X
Description: New. Slight shelf wear with slight corner wear. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780801492228ISBN:080149222X
Description: New. Remainder mark. Near fine in slightly rubbed and bumped publisher's decorated wrappers. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Cornell
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9780801492228ISBN:080149222X
Description: Very Good. 080149222x Light moisture stain along upper edge of first few pages. Fore edges lightly spotted. Covers moderately worn. Pages unmarked, binding firm. read more
Binding: S Trade Paperback
Publisher: Cornell University Press, Ithaca
ISBN-13:9780801492228ISBN:080149222X
Description: Very Good + 8vo 305 pp, preface, 6 chapters with footnotes, index. Seventh Printing, 1994. Slightly creased rear wrapper. Inked name on half-title withinked underlining through page 61, thereafter clean, tight and strong binding. Wraps. ~Click on BOOKSTORES to browse our extensive listings of similar titles in Literary Criticism~ read more
Binding: S Paperback
Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr, Ithaca
ISBN-13:9780801492228ISBN:080149222X
Description: Very Good-Fine in J Very Good-Fine jacket. 8vo 305 pp, preface, 6 essays with footnotes, index. Second Printing, 1982. Pristine. Wraps clean, tight and strong binding with no underlining, highlighting or marginalia in text. ~Click on BOOKSTORES to browse our extensive listings of similar titles in Literary Criticism~ read more
Edition: F First Paperback Edition
Binding: S Trade Paperback
Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr, Ithaca
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9780801492228ISBN:080149222X
Description: As New. 8vo 305 pp, preface, 6 chapters with footnotes, index. Pristine, no wear. Clean and bright; tight and strong binding with no underlining, highlighting or marginalia in text. Wraps. ~Click on BOOKSTORES to browse our extensive listings of similar titles in Literary Criticism~ read more
Description: Good. 080149222X Good condition. May have some markings & or shelfwear. All pages intact. Used items may not include extras such as infotrac, CD or other web access codes. read more
"Jameson at his most lucid. I especially like the first chapter, which spells out the ideological stakes of different literary critical methodologies."
"The "unconscious" to which Jameson speaks is "history" and its class conflicts. Like Freud's idea that dreams are "disguised wishes" which have been "hidden" within the "form" of the dream, likewise within literary productions are the hidden wishes for "utopia" which are "disguised" within the artistic form of the story, in which class conflicts and social contradictions are given expression but are "disguised" and decentered within the artwork.
This is because there are always contradictions at play within an artistic piece. The work of art is fueled in part by a desire for "utopia" (the unfullfilled wish), but at the same time "ideology" obtusicates this (ala Freud's "Dream Work"), muddles it, and hides it by pressing these urges to the sideline, where we are instead distracted by its "apparent" theme (manifest content) or a multiplicity of meanings (latent content), none of which truly satisfies our dream for utopian realized.
Jameson's idea of the unconscious also similar to Freud's: as that which has been repressed and hidden from view/ consciousness. There is nothing religious or mystical about it this ideas. Freud discussed this idea within the psyche of the individual; Jameson discussed this idea as within the social realm of discourse.
For Jameson all art is political, but this political aspect has been mostly relegated to subtext. The "master code" which can unlock a text's true meaning is "History," and reading historically, or, what jameson calls "dialectical criticism."
In effect, one can look to Zizek for help, and his useful distinction between the three levels of dreams: 1) manifest content, 2) latent content, and 3) the Dream Work (form). For dreams, and likewise for Jameson's idea of the work of art, the aim is not to discover the "latent meaning"-- for the latent meaning is often obvious and not terribly interesting, and doing so is often a distraction from what is really important, which is investigating the narratives "form." The search for latent meaning (what is the central theme?, what does the central metaphor represent?, etc), distracts us from the reality that the main character/ central metaphor is often just a prop used by the author to explore what is, for Jameson, more important-- the class, and social/ historical themes which are decentered and relegated as "unimportant" or sub-themes.
This is a brilliant book, and manages to subsume all other schools of literary theory (structuralism, deconstructionism, etc) under Marxism, somewhat as he did when he subsumed Postmodernism under Marxism in his book "Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism."
This book is probably THE most important work of Marxist literary theory in existence. Very hard, but worth working at. I struggled with this book for a while, starting and stopping and starting then again. If you read far and wide enough, and keep at it, one day you will crack this nut and it will indeed have been worth it."
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