Late Capitalism - Jameson

Jameson

Jameson uses Mandel's third stage designation as the point of departure for his widely-cited Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Jameson argues that this postmodernity involves an emergence of a Cultural Dominant or Mode of Cultural Production which differs markedly in its various manifestations - Jameson commenting on developments in Literature, Film, Fine Art, Video, Social Theory, etc. - from those of its predecessor, referred to collectively and broadly as Modernism, particularly in its treatment of "subject position," temporality and narrative. For Jameson, "every position on postmodernism today - whether apologia or stigmatization- is also...necessarily an implicitly or explicitly political stance on the nature of multinational capitalism today". A section of Jameson's analysis has been reproduced on the Marxists Internet Archive.

Jameson (1996) saw the current, 'third' moment of capitalist evolution as involving a new and previously unparalleled global reach - whether it was conceptualised as multinational or as informational capitalism; but expressed doubts as to whether it yet represented what Marx had originally foreseen as the final stage of capitalism, with the universal commodification of the world market.