Late Marxism Rad Thk 2 Pa

Inthe name of an assault on 'œtotalization'� and 'œidentity,'� a number ofcontemporary theorists have been busily washing Marxism's dialecticaland utopian projects down the plug-hole of postmodernism and'œpost-politics.'� A case in point is recent interpretation of one of thegreatest twentieth-century philosophers, Theodor Adorno. In thispowerful book, Fredric Jameson proposes a radically different readingof Adorno's work, especially of his major works on philosophy andaesthetics: Negative Dialectics and Aesthetic Theory.Jamesonargues persuasively that Adorno's contribution to the development ofMarxism remains unique and indispensable. He shows how Adorno's work onaesthetics performs deconstructive operations yet is in sharpdistinction to the now canonical deconstructive genre of writing. Heexplores the complexity of Adorno's very timely affirmation ofphilosophy '” of its possibility after the 'œend'� of grand theory. Aboveall, he illuminates the subtlety and richness of Adorno's continuingemphasis on late capitalism as a totality within the very forms of ourculture. In its lucidity, Late Marxism echoes the writing of its subject, to whose critical, utopian intelligence Jameson remains faithful.

Fredric Jameson is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University. The author of numerous books, he has over the last three decades developed a richly nuanced vision of Western culture’s relation to political economy. He was a recipient of the 2008 Holberg International Memorial Prize. He is the author of many books, including Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, The Cultural Turn, A Singular Modernity, The Modernist Papers, Archaeologies of the Future, Brecht and Method, Ideologies of Theory, Valences of the Dialectic, The Hegel Variations and Representing Capital.