In an age of globalization characterized by the dizzying technologies of the First World, and the social disintegration of the Third, is the concept of utopia still meaningful?Īrchaeologies of the Future, Jameson’s most substantial work since Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, investigates the development of this form since Thomas More, and interrogates the functions of utopian thinking in a post-Communist age. Terry Eagleton, London Review of BooksĪrchaeologies of the Future is the third volume, after Postmodernism and A Singular Modernity, of Jameson’s project on the Poetics of Social Forms. The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science FictionsĬertainly among the most stunning studies of utopia and science fiction ever produced… a vast treasure trove of a book. We are missing what Fredric Jameson terms "the desire called utopia.“ARCHAEOLOGIES OF THE FUTURE”: FREDRIC JAMESON BOOK Augat 10:00 pm | Posted in Books, Globalization, History, Literary, Philosophy, Research, Science & Technology | Leave a comment We are scarcely able to envision a tolerable and pleasant world without money, advertising, and brand names, and without the vast inequities that characterize a competitive economy. As the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek puts it, we find it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. In the wake of 9/11 and Katrina, it's hard not to think that our culture is doomed. Our heads are filled with doomsday scenarios: terrorist attacks, radical climate change, a pandemic of avian flu or airborne AIDS, even collision with an asteroid. In this age of globalization and genetic engineering, the prospect of catastrophe is never far away.
Of course, we know that things could fall apart at any moment.
Postmodern capitalism is the very air we breathe it's the background for every voyage, the setting for every story. Is it possible to imagine an alternative to capitalism? Private enterprise, the free market, cutthroat competition and the survival of the fittest vast and highly diversified transnational corporations shopping as a form of sexual satisfaction shady financial transactions zapping across the globe in fractions of a second mortgages, student loans, and credit cards that can never be paid off the proliferation of brand names, corporate logos, and celebrity endorsements gated communities and suburban McMansions on the one hand, and immense shantytowns and slums on the other: These are the contours of the world we live in.
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