The exhortation to “read some effing Orwell!” is an old chestnut of the online left, whether ironic or sincere, or somewhere in between. But if we’re looking for a writer whose body of work truly anticipates the world we live in now – globalised, postcolonial, postmodern – we might instead turn to the American Marxist cultural critic Fredric Jameson.
He’s just turned 90 and, in characteristically productive style, has three new books out this year. But where to start? To get a grip on Jamesonian thought, Richard Hames invites Sianne Ngai and Matthew Beaumont, both incisive critics in their own right, to discuss the breadth of his life and work, from postmodernism to the political unconscious to Jaws.
Sianne and Matt recommend that new readers of Jameson start with The Geopolitical Aesthetic or the essay ‘Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture‘.
Read Sianne and Matt’s recent essays on Jameson over at the Verso blog.
Novara FM: Revenge of the Commoners w/ Jon Moses
Downstream: Is It Time for a Universal Basic Income? w/ Will Stronge
Downstream: Leaving London’s Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community w/ Izzy Posen
Downstream: Can The Green Party Transform British Politics? w/ Zack Polanski
ACFM Trip 34: The Outdoors
Downstream: How To Predict the Future w/ Peter Turchin
Novara FM: Let’s Go Outside
Downstream: The British Media Is Broken w/ Moya Lothian-McLean & Michael Walker
Novara FM: Wave of Automation w/ Aaron Benanev
Novara FM: The Mute Compulsion of Capitalism w/ Søren Mau
Downstream: How Corporations Control the Government w/ Matt Kennard
Novara FM: Palestine as Showroom w/ Antony Loewenstein
Downstream: God-Like AI Is Closer Than You Think w/ Ian Hogarth
ACFM Microdose: Sitcoms At Work
Novara FM: Tout Le Monde Déteste La Police
ACFM Trip 33: Comedy
Downstream: The Truth about the GDR w/ Katja Hoyer
Novara FM: Much More Freedom Is Necessary W/ Sophie K. Rosa
Downstream: How the Media Lies About Palestine w/ Mohammed el-Kurd
Novara FM: Atomic Split w/ Matthew T. Huber and Andrea Vetter
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free