On Jameson's Post-modernism Cultural Theory

Fredric Jameson is the most famous western Marxism theorist in contemporary America, he pays close attention to the problem on post—modernism based on the position of Marxism, and shows his distinguished logic strength and historical depth in the discussion of post—modernism, thus he has achieved a comparative higher level in the contemporary western Marxism theory, even in the whole field of aesthetics. Since he was invited to have a lecture in Beijing University in 1985, in recent 20 years, domestic scholars have paid a lot of attention to his theory, his main works and discourses also have been published. However, the achievements of studying on his theory were depressing, because many scholars were afraid of his heterogeneous knowledge and incomprehensible expressions. At the same time, his Marxism hermeneutics was preferred to widely, instead of his post—modernism cultural theory. This thesis focuses on Jameson's post—modernism cultural theory. It is expected that we can know about the erudition of Jameson's theory through exploring his post—modernism theory.This thesis includes four parts. It mainly analyzes Jameson's definition of post—modernism, summarizes his expositions on the characters of post—modernism on culture, examines his comments on post—modernism, explores his unique and original ideas and weak points during his studying process of post—modernism culture.Part one begins with Jameson's definition of post—modernism, analyzes the three connotations of this definition, thinks that Jameson shows his Marxism standpoint from the insisting on the determinism of economic foundation, the materialistic conception of history, the overall principle, and the dialectics, then it explores his Marxism methods that he adopted in the course of his studying post—modernism based on his unique standpoint on studying post—modernism.Part two summarizes Jameson's analysis of the characters of post—modernism on culture. This thesis sums up his descriptions on post—modernism from content and form:Content:Firstly, this thesis explains the first character on post—modernism advanced by Jameson, that is, post—modernism is a kind of intentional rebellion against modernism. He describes the subversion of post—modernism against modernism from five aspects: obliterating the depth; the disappearing of sense of history; the disappearing of subject; the disappearing of sense of distance, and the aesthetic populism. Then it discusses the second character on post—modernism posed by Jameson: the very clearly demarcated demarcation line and difference of modernism period disappeared in post—modernism. This thesis mainly discusses about the disappearance of the division between the culture and commodity and the fusion of the elegant culture and the mass culture. Form Jameson analyzes the characters of the form of post—modernism from three aspects: the post—modernism on culture has obvious sense of pastiche; the strong impact on vision; and the sense of synthetic technique. Part three focuses on Jameson's comment and prospect on post—modernism, Jameson regards post—modernism on culture as both development and disaster, this is both a one—divide—into—two and a two—combine—into—one dialectical comment made by Jameson on clear and stable Marxism standpoint. This thesis also declares that in Jameson's opinion, the globalization of culture is unavoidable which is concluded from his Marxism standpoint, and then analyzes his opinions on the globalization of culture.At last, this thesis comments on the virtues and defects of Jameson's theory of post—modernism, declares that his theory of post—modernism is inclusive; initiative; consistent; stable and effective, meanwhile put it clear what is his defects in his theory. This thesis absorbs widely the achievements of Jameson's theory in existence and puts some new views based upon them. The study of domestic scholars on Jameson's theory usually concentrates on two points: one is his post—modernism cultural logic theory, and the other...