Marxism and Form: 20th-Century Dialectical Theories of Literature

By Fredric Jameson

Book Overview

An influential introduction to Marxist cultural criticism by the acclaimed literary theorist

In Marxism and Form, Fredric Jameson, one of the most important literary and cultural critics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, offers a pioneering look at major European Marxist and Frankfurt School thinkers--Adorno, Benjamin, Marcuse, Bloch, Luk cs, and Sartre. Through penetrating readings, Jameson develops an influential mode of critical engagement that places art and culture at the heart of Marxist theory. The result lays the foundations for the entirety of Jameson's monumental critical project--and remains a timely and vital work of aesthetic criticism for readers today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691278172
• ISBN13: 9780691278179
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 472 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Must for Marxism

If you are looking to begin reading in Marxist theory and cultural critique, you MUST begin with Jameson's magesterial "Marxism and Form." It moves amazingly through the entire Western Marxist tradition, and gives a very nice introduction into each thinker. The book argues throughout that Marxist cultural criticism has hitherto only focused on the content of cultural texts but has ignored the form. Therefore, a properly dialectical analysis MUST account for the form of these texts. Jameson then conludes by offering his theory of a dialectical analysis that synthesizes all the theorists he introduces with his own theory of form.