Page 127 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

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Jameson, Frederic (1934– ) Jameson is a leading American cultural critic and the
Marxist theorist of postmodernism as the cultural logic of late capitalism. For
Jameson, postmodernism is implicated in a depthless sense of the present and a loss
of historical understanding marked by fragmentation, instability and disorientation.
Postmodern aesthetics involves the cannibalization of styles from past and present
with a consequent loss of authentic artistic style in favour of pastiche that breaks
down any firm distinction between high and low culture. However, unlike some
postmodernists, Jameson argues that postmodern cultural practices are not
superficial but expressive of developments and experiences in a deep ‘reality’ of
global late capitalism. In particular, late capitalism extends commodification to all
realms of personal and social life transforming the real into the image and
simulacrum.
• Associated concepts Aesthetics, capitalism, cultural materialism, hyperreality,
postmodernism, simulacrum.
• Tradition(s) Critical theory, hermeneutics, Marxism.
• Reading Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.
London and New York: Verso.

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