Article Title
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This essay outlines the conceptual work done by the category and figure of war in the writings of Fredric Jameson, from his earliest work, Sartre: The Origins of a Style (1961), to the recent Valences of the Dialectic (2009). At first glance Jameson’s work does not feature a firmly articulated position on war, nor do his writings, with salient exceptions, take up war as a theme or topic with any consistency or thoroughness. Nevertheless, Jameson’s writings not only display repeated recourse to the notion of war but also, at a deeper level, conduct an enduring conversation between war and systemic, or anti-capitalist, critique. I call this persistent conceptual thread the dialectic of war and Utopia. Through this dialectic Jameson uses the category of war to present a particular portrait of the capitalist system—one that foregrounds the structural imperative of competitive and agonistic social relations—and, in turn, to delineate the contours of Utopia as a concept. At stake in this reading is thus, in part, a theoretical reconstruction of the category of Utopia across a wide range of Jameson’s thought. Given the centrality of Utopia for Jameson, this has bearing on his so-called allegorical mode of interpretation, on his generic studies of science fiction, and on Utopia as a foundational notion underpinning Jameson’s political imaginary. The essay closes by speculating about how Jameson’s work might suggest possibilities for an anti-war politics in the contemporary moment.
Recommended Citation
Carter, Stephen D.
(2016)
"The Dialectic of War and Utopia: Systemic Closure and Embattled Social Life In The Work of Fredric Jameson,"
Criticism: Vol. 58
:
Iss.
2
, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism/vol58/iss2/2
