Name: A Singular Modernity
SKU: 25415813
Price: 28.38 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Fredric Jameson
ISBN: 9781781680223

Type

Physical Book

Author

Fredric Jameson

Publisher

Verso

Year

2013

Language

English

Pages

250

Format

Paperback

ISBN

1781680221

ISBN13

9781781680223

Edition No.

Synopsis "A Singular Modernity "

The concepts of modernity and modernism are amongst the most controversial and vigorously debated in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory. In this intervention, Fredric Jameson—perhaps the most influential and persuasive theorist of postmodernity—excavates and explores these notions in a fresh and illuminating manner.The extraordinary revival of discussions of modernity, as well as of new theories of artistic modernism, demands attention in its own right. It seems clear that the (provisional) disappearance of alternatives to capitalism plays its part in the universal attempt to revive ‘modernity’ as a social ideal. Yet the paradoxes of the concept illustrate its legitimate history and suggest some rules for avoiding its misuse as well.In this major interpretation of the problematic, Jameson concludes that both concepts are tainted, but nonetheless yield clues as to the nature of the phenomena they purported to theorize. His judicious and vigilant probing of both terms—which can probably not be banished at this late date—helps us clarify our present political and artistic situations.

Fredric Jameson

(Author)

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Fredric Jameson (1934–2024) was an influential American literary critic and Marxist theorist, known for his analysis of contemporary culture and its relationship with late capitalism. He earned his PhD from Yale with a thesis on Sartre and taught at universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Duke. His methodological approach combined Marxism, structuralism, and psychoanalysis, addressing issues like postmodernism and cultural production in the globalized era. In 2008, he received the prestigious Holberg Prize for his outstanding contribution to the study of the relationships between social formations and cultural forms.

Among his most notable works are Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), Theories of Postmodernity (1996), The Seeds of Time (2000), A Singular Modernity (2002), Archaeologies of the Future (2009), and The Realism and the Providential Novel (2006). The latter, published by the Circle of Fine Arts, examines narrative structures in Western literature, from Heliodorus to George Eliot, and suggests that happy endings are a literary rather than existential category. His work falls within the genre of critical essay and literary theory, and has left an indelible mark on contemporary cultural and literary studies.

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