Writer, theorist, and UC Berkeley professor (and communist) Jasper Bernes joins us for a discussion of the life and work of Fredric Jameson, an absolute beast of Marxist philosophy and cultural critique who passed away last month following a long and illustrious life.
Following a summary of Jameson's career and a discussion of his epistemological approach, the crew digs into some of his ideas. What is it about the postmodern/neoliberal era that simultaneously creates amnesia and nostalgia? How are humans more atomized than ever, yet losing any real sense of individuality? What purpose can utopian science fiction, like that of Jameson protege Kim Stanley Robinson, serve as we try to find a way out of this exhausted system called capitalism? And, in this era in which nothing is shocking, can there be such a thing as truly radical art?
"Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism," Fredric Jameson: https://web.education.wisc.edu/halverson/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2012/12/jameson.pdf
The Work of Art in the Age of Deindustrialization, Jasper Bernes: https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/work-art-age-deindustrialization
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