Anderson, Perry Origins of Post Modernity

Jc |ICIns C!
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VERSO
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First published by Verso 1998
Perry Anderson 1998
Al rights reserved
Reprinted 1998, 1v
T he moral rights of the author have been asserted
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LGnICnIs
orcword \II
i. rodromcs o
2. Crystallizaton iJ
o. Capturc ^/
^. AItcr-cIIccts /8
ndcx ioV
GICVGIU
Jhs cssay startcd whcn was askcd to ntroducc a ncw
collccton oI wrtngs by rcdrc ]amcson, The Cultural Turn.
n thc cvcnt, t bccamc too long Ior thc purposc. n publshng
t as a tcxt by tsclI, howcvcr, havc not wantcd to altcr ts
Iorm. tsbcstrcadn coniunctonwththc volumcthatnsprcd
t. Although havc ncvcr wrttcn about a body oI work that
dd not, n oncwayoranothcr, admrc, anclcmcntoIrcsstancc
was n thc past always an ngrcdcnt n thc mpulsc to do so.
ntcllcctual admraton s n any casc onc thng, poltcal sym-
pathy anothcr. Jhs short book trcs do somcthng clsc, whch
havc always Iound dIhcult. to cxprcss a scnsc oI thc achcvc-
mcnt oIa thnkcrwth whom, tmght bc sad, lackthc saIcty
oIsuIhccntdstancc. havc noassuranccthathavc succccdcd.
ut somc largcr dcbatc around ]amcson`s work n gcncral s
ovcrduc,andthsattcmptmayatlcasthclptocncouragct.
1hc ttlc oI thc tcxt has a two-Iold rcIcrcncc. Jhc prncpal
am oI thc cssay s to oIIcr a morc hstorcal account oI
orgns oIthc dca oIpostmodcrnty than s currcntlyavaila"-!
onc that trcs to sct ts dIIcrcnt sourccs morc prccscly n t
spatal, poltcal and ntcllcctual scttngs, and wth
attcnton to tcmporal scqucncc - also topcal Iocus - than has
bccomc customary. nly aganst thsbackground, myargumcnt
gocs, docs thc pccular stamp oI]amcson`s contrbuton cmcrgc
nIullrclcI. Asccondarypurposcstosuggcst, morctcntatvcly,
somc oI thc condtons that may havc rclcascd thc postmodcrn
- not as dca, but asphcnomcnon. n part, thcsc arc commcnts
that scck to rcvsc an carlcr attcmpt to skctch thc prcmscs oI
vii
FOREWORD
modcrnsm n thc prcvous fn de siecle, and n part thcy try
to cngagc wth thc lvcly contcmporary ltcraturc on thcsc
qucstons.
wouldlkctothankthchclpoIthcVsscnschaItskollcg,crln,
whcrc ths work was complctcd, and ts cxccptonal lbrarans,
andcxprcssmy dcbtsgcncrallytoJomNcrtcsandmystudcnts
nIosAngclcs.
Y111
=
====== |
IGUIGmCs
Lima - Madrid - London
'ostmodcrnsm` as tcrm and dca supposcs thc currcncy oI
'modcrnsm` . Contrary to convcntonal cxpcctaton, both wcrc
born n a dstant pcrphcry rathcr than at thc ccntrc oI thc
cultural systcm oI thc tmc. thcy comc not Irom [uropc or thc
\ntcd Statcs, but .+
Vc owc thc conagc

oI'modcmism`sanacsthctc mcntoa ^caraguan poct,
wrtngna Cuatcmalani ournal,oIaltcrarycncountcrncru.
Rubcnaro`sntatonn189OoIa sclI-conscouscurrcntthat
took thc namc oI modernismo drcw on succcssvc rcnch
schools - romantc, parnassan, symbolst - Iora 'dcclaratonoI
cultural ndcpcndcncc` Irom Span that sct n moton an cman-
cpaton Irom thc past oI Spansh lcttcrs thcmsclvcs, n thc
cohort oIthc189O` s. 'Vhcrc n [nglsh thc noton oI 'modcrn-
sm` scarccly cntcrcd gcncral usagc bcIorc md-ccntury, n
Spansh t was canoncal a gcncraton carlcr. Mcrc thc back-
wardponccrcdthc tcrms oImctropoltan advancc - much
thc nnctccnth ccntury, 'lbcralsm` was an nvcnton oI
Spansh rsng aganst rcnch occupaton n thc cpoch
âpolcon, ancxotc cxprcssonIrom Cadz at homc only much
latcrnthcdrawng-roomsoIars orIondon.
So too thc dca oI a 'postmodcrnsm` hrst surIaccd n thc
!
'Ricardo Palma', Obras Completas, Vol 2, Madrid 1950, p. 19: 'the new spirit
that animates a small, but proud and triumphant, group of writers and poets in
Spanish America today: moderism' .
3
THE ORI GI NS OF POSTMODERNI TY
i Mspanc ntcr-world oI thc 19JO` s, a gcncraton bcIorc ts
appcarancc n[ngland or Amcrca. twas aIrcnd oI\namuno
and rtcga, cdcrco dc ns, whostruckoIIthctcrmpostmod
ernismo. Mc uscd t to dcscrbc a conscrvatvc rcf|ux wthn
modcrnsm tsclI. onc whch sought rcIugc Irom ts Iormdablc
lyrcal challcngc n a mutcd pcrIcctonsm oI dctal and ronc
humour, whosc most orgnal Icaturc was thc ncwly authcntc
cxprcsson t aIIordcd womcn. c ns contrastcd ths pattcrn
- short-lvcd, hc thought- wth ts scqucl, an ultramodernismo
that ntcnshcd thc radcal mpulscs oI modcrnsm to a ncw
ptch, n a scrcs oI avant-gardcs that wcrc now crcatng a
'rgorously contcmporary poctry` oI unvcrsal rcach. c ns` s
Iamous anthologyoISpansh-languagcpocts, organzcd accord-
ng to ths schcma, appcarcd n Nadrd n 19J^, as thc IcIt
\ took oIhcc n thc Rcpublc amd thc count-down to thc Cvl
Var. cdcatcd to Antono Nachado, ts panorama oI 'ultra-
modcrnsm` cndcdwthIorca and\allcio,orgcs and ^cruda.
Nntcd by cns,thcdcaoIa'postmodcrn`stylcpasscdnto
thc vocabulary oI Mspanophonc crtcsm, I rarcly uscd by
subscqucntwrtcrswth hsprccson,` butt rcmancd wthout
wdcr ccho. t was not untl somc twcnty ycars latcr that thc
tcrm cmcrgcd n thc Anglophonc world, n a vcry dI|crcnt
2 Federico de Onis, Antologfa de Ia Poesfa Espanola e Hispanoamericana
(1882-1932), Madrid 1934, pp. xiii-xxiv. For De Onis's view of the specifcity of
Hispanophone modernism, whose representative thinkers he believed to be Marti
and Unamuno, see 'Sabre el Concepto del Modernismo', La Torre, April-June
1953, pp. 95-103. There is a fne synthetic portrait of Daria himself in Antologfa,
pp. 143-152. During the Civil War, friendship with Unamuno restrained De Onis,
but his basic outlook can be found in his commemoration of Machado: 'Antonio
Machado (1875-1939), La Torre, January-June 1964, p. 16; and for recollections
of his stance at the time, see Aurelio Pego, 'Onis, el Hombre', La Torre,
January-March 1968, pp. 95-96.
3 The infuence of this usage was not confned to the Spanish-speaking world, but
extended to the Luso-Brazilian as well. See, for a curious example, Bezerra de
Freitas, Forma e Expressio no Romance Brasileiro - Do periodo colonial a epoca
pos-modernista, Rio de Janeiro 1947, where Brazilian modernism is dated from
the Semana de Arte Moderna in Sao Paulo in 1922, under the impact of futurism,
and associated essentially with the rupture of Mario de Andrade, and postmodern
ism held to have set in with an indigenist reaction by the thirties: pp. 319-326,
344-346.
4
PRODROMES
contcxt - asancpochal rathcr than acsthctc catcgory. nthc
hrst volumc oI hs Study of History, also publshcd n 19J^,
Arnold Joynbcc argucd thatthc concurrcncc oItwo powcrIul
Iorccs, ndustralsm and âtonalsm, had shapcd thc rcccnt
hstory oI thc Vcst. Sncc thc last quartcr oI thc nnctccnth
ccntury, howcvcr, thcy had cntcrcd nto dcstructvc contradc-
tonwth cachothcr, asthc ntcrnatonal scalc oIndustry burst
thc bounds oInatonalty, yctthc contagon oInatonalsm tsclI
sprcad downwards nto cvcr smallcr and lcss vablc cthnic
communtcs. Jhc Crcat Var had sprung Irom thc conf|ct
bctwccnthcsc trcnds, makng tunmstakcably clcar that an agc
had opcncd n whch natonal powcr could no longcr bc sclI-
suIhccnt. t was thc duty oI hstorans to hnd a ncw horzon
appropratc to thc cpoch, whch could only bc Iound at thc
hghcr lcvcl oI cvlzatons, bcyond thc outworn catcgory oI
naton-statcs.'Jhs was thc task Joynbcc sct hmsclI n thc sx
volumcs oI hs Study publshcd - but stll ncomplctc - bcIorc
19J9.
ythctmchcrcsumcd publcaton hItccn ycarslatcr,Joyn-
bcc`s outlook had altcrcd. Jhc Sccond Vorld Var had vnd-
catcd hs orgnal nspraton - a dccp hostlty to natonalsm,
and guardcd suspcon oI ndustralsm. ccolonzaton, too,
hadconhrmcdJoynbcc`ssccptcalvcwoVcstcrnmpcralsm.
Jhc pcrodzaton hc had proposcd twcnty ycars carlcr now
took on clcarcr shapc n hs mnd. n hs cghth volumc,
publshcd n19^, Joynbcc dubbcd thc cpochrho1had opcncd
wth thc ranco-russan Var th 'post-modcrn ac' ut hs

dchnton oI t rcmancd csscntally:ccativc.`Wcstcrn com-
-
muntcs bccamc modcrn ` , hcwrotc, 'iustas soonas thcyh
succccdcd n producng a bourgcosc that was both me

cnough and compctcnt cnouh to bccomc thc p:e1omin

clcmcnt n soccty` . ` y contrast, n thc postmodcrn agc t
mddlc class was no longcr nthc saddlc. Joynbcc was lcss
dchntc about what Iollowcd. utccrtanlythc postmodcrn agc
wasmarkcdbytwodcvclopmcnts.thcrscoIanndustralworkng
class nthcVcst, andthc bd oIsucccssvcntcllgcntsasoutsdc
4 A Study of History, Vol 1, London 1934, pp. 12-15.
5 A Study of History, Vo!S, p. 338.
5

thc Vcst to mastcr thc sccrcts oI modcrnty and turn thcm
aganst thc Vcst. Joynbcc`s most sustancd rcflcctons on thc
cmcrgcncc oI a postmodcrn cpoch Iocuscd on thc lattcr. Ms
cxamplcs wcrc Nci]apan, olshcvk Russa,Kcmalst Jurkcy,
and - iustborn - Naost Chna. '
Joynbcc wasnopartcular admrcr oI thc rcsultant rcgmcs.
uthcwas scathng oIthchubrstcllusonsoIthclatcmpcral
Vcst. At thc closc oI thc nnctccnth ccntury, hc wrotc, 'an
unprcccdcntly prospcrous and comIortablc Vcstcrn mddlc-
class wastakngt as amattcroIcoursc thatthc cnd oIoncagc
oI onc cvlzaton`s hstory was thc cnd oI Mstory tsclI - at
lcast as Iar as thcy and thcr knd wcrc conccrncd. Jhcy wcrc
magnng that, Ior thcr bcncht, a sanc, saIc, satsIactory
Nodcrn IIc had mraculously comc to stay as a tmclcss
prcscnt`. Complctcly awry n thc cpoch, 'n thc \ntcd Kng-
dom, Ccrmanyandthcôrthcrn\ntcdStatcsthccomplaccncy
oIa post-NodcrnVcstcrn bourgcosc rcmancd unshakcnunIl
thc outbrcak oI thc hrst post-Nodcrn gcncral war n A. .
191^` . our dccadcs latcr, conIrontcd wth thc prospcct oI a
thrd - nuclcar - war, Joynbcc dccdcd that thc vcry catcgory
oIcvlzaton, wthwhch hc had sct out torcwrtcthcpattcrn
oI human dcvclopmcnt, had lost pcrtncncc. n onc scnsc,
Vcstcrncvlzaton - as thc unbrdlcdprmacyoItcchnology-
had bccomc unvcrsal, but as such promscd only thc mutual
run oI all. A global poltcalauthorty, bascd onthc hcgcmony
oIonc powcr, wasthc condton oIany saIc passagc out oIthc
Cold Var. ut n thc long run, only a ncw unvcrsalrclgon
whch would ncccssarly bc a syncrctstc Iath - could sccurc
thcIuturcoIthcplanct.
Shaanx - Angkor - Yucatan
Joynbcc`s cmprcal shortcomngs, and vatc conclusons, com-
bncd to solatc hs work at a tmc whcn commtmcnt to thc
battlc aganst Communsm was cxpcctcd to bc lcss ncbulous.
A Study of History, Vol 8, pp. 339-346.
A Study of History, Vol 9, London 1954, p. 420.
8 A Study of History, Vol 9, p. 421.
6
PRODROMES
AItcr ntal polcmcs, twasquckly Iorgottcn, and wth tthc
clam taIthc twcntcrh ccnt couldalrcadybc dcscrbcd as a
oostmodcrnagc. Such wasnot to bc thc casc wth thc vrtually
contcmporancous - npont oIIact, slghtlycarlcr - orgnaton
oI thc tcrm n ôrth Amcrca. Charlcs lson, wrtng to hs
Icllow-poct Robcrt Crcclcy on rcturn Irom Yucatan n thc
summcr oI191, startcdtospcakoIa 'post-modcrnworld`that
lay bcyondthc mpcral agc oIthcscovcrcsandthcndustral
Rcvoluton. 'Jhc hrst halI oI thc twcntcth ccntury`, hc wrotc
soon aItcrwards, was 'thc marshallng yard on whch thc
modcrnwasturncd to whatwc havc,thc post-modcrn, orpost-
Vcst` . n^ ôvcmbcr 192, thc day[scnhowcrwasclcctcd
rcsdcnt, lson - ostcnsbly supplyng nIormaton Ior a bo-
graphcal drcctory oI Twentieth Century Authors- sct downa
lapdarymanIcsto, bcgnnng wth thc words 'Ny shIts that
takc t thc prcscnt s prologuc, not thc past`, and cndng wth a
dcscrpton oIthat ' gong lvc prcscnt ` as 'post-modcrn, post-
humanst,post-hstorc`
3U
.~ *
Jhc scnsc oI thcsc tcrms camc Irom a dstnctvc poctc
proicct. lson` s background lay n thc ^cw cal. Actvc n
Rooscvclt`s Iourth rcsdcntalcampagnashcadoIthc orcgn
âtonaltcs vson oI thc cmocratc âtonal Commttcc,
lson was wntcrng n Kcy Vcst n carly 19^ wth Icllow
party oIhcalsaItcr clcctoral vctory, awatng prcIcrmcnt nthc
ncw admnstraton. Jhcrc, suddcnly changng thc coursc oIhs
lIc, hc startcdtoplanancpccnttlcd West, covcrngthcwholc
hstory oI thc ccdcntal world Irom Clgamcsh - latcr dys-
scus - to thc Amcrcan prcscnt, and wrotc a pocm, orgnallV
cnttlcdTelegram, rcnouncngpublc oIhcc, thoughnot
o
rcsponsblty. 'thc aIIars oI mcn rcman a chcI
Rcturnng to Vashngton, lson wrotc on Nclvllc
dcIcndcd ound, and workcd Ior skar Iangc - a
Charles Olson and Robert Creeley, The Complete Correspondence, Vol 7, Santa
Rosa 1987, pp. 75, 115, 241, letters dated 9/8/51, 20/8/51 and 3/10/51. The last is
an extended statement Olson entitled 'The Law', where the act of nuclear terror
ends the modern age. 'Quite recently a door went bang shut', Olson writes. 'Bio
chemistry is post-modern. And electronics is already a science of communication -
the "human" is already the "image" of the computing machine' : p. 234.
10 Twentieth Century Authors -First Supplement, New York,1955, pp. 741-742.
7
Ircnd, now olsh Ambassador to thc ! lobbyng thc
admnstraton Ior thc ncw govcrnmcnt n Varsaw. Shakcn by
thc nuclcar bombng oI Mroshma and âgasak, hc opposcd
Jruman`s rcnomnaton as a dclcgatc to thc cmocratc Con-
vcntonn19^8 . '
y thc tmc hc was rcady t o takc up hs cpc thcmc, ts
compass had altcrcd. n md-^8, hc wrotc n Notes for the
Proposition: Man is Prospective: 'Spacc s thc mark oI ncw
hstory, and thc mcasurc oI work now aIoot sthc dcpth oI thc
pcrccpton oI spacc, both as spacc nIorms obiccts and as t
contans, n antthcssto tmc, sccrcts oIa humantas cascd out
oI contcmporary narrows . . . Nan as obicct, not man as mass
or cconomc ntcgcr, s thc burcd sccd n all Iormulatons oI
collcctvc acton stcmmngIrom Narx. Jhs sccd, not ts tactc
whch mcrcly sccurcs tvotcs orcoups d`ctat, sthc sccrct oIthc
powcr and clam oI collcctvsm ovcr mcn`s mnds. t s thc
gran n thc pyramd, and I t s allowcd any longcr to rot
unrccognzcd, collcctvsm wll rot as t dd n nazsm and as
captalsm has by a lkc antnoman law. 'Add. thc pcrsstng
-1alurc to count what Asa wll do to collcctvsm, thc mcrc
quantty oI hcr pcoplc cnough to movc thc carth, lcavng asdc
thcmoralgraccoIsuchoIhcrlcadcrsas^chru,Nao,Si ahrr`.
'
I thcsc last, onc was oI cspccal momcnt to lson. !n19^^,
lasngwththcVhtcMouscIorthcIhccoIVar!nIormaton,
hc had bccn angcrcd bythc bas oI\S polcytowards thc KNJ
rcgmcn Chna, andhostltyto thc Communst basc nYcnan.
AItcr thc war, two Ircnds kcpt hm n touch wth Chncsc
dcvclopmcnts. ]can Rboud, a young rcnch bankcr actvc n
thc Rcsstancc, now an assocatc oI Cartcr-rcsson n ^cw
York,andRobcrtaync, an [nglsh wrtcr oINalrauvancast,
lccturcr nKunmng durngthcSno-]apancscVarandrcportcr
Irom Ycnan aItcr t, whosc darcs oIIcr an ndclblc magc oI
thc moral collapsc oIChang Ka-shck`srcgmc, andthc rsc oI
Nao`s altcrnatvctotonthccvcoIthcCvlVar.
'
`
1
!
See Tom Clark, Charles Olson. The Allegory of a Poet's Life, New York 1991,
pp. 84-93, 107-1 1 2, 138.
!
l
'Notes for the Proposition: Man is Prospective', boundary 2, II, 1-2, Fall
1973-Winter 1974, pp. 2-3.
!
Robert Payne, Forever China, New York 1945; China Awake, New York 1 947.
8
PRODROMES
n thc last day oI ]anuary 19^9, aItcr a pcaccIul scgc,
Communsttroopsmarchcdntocing, complctng thclbcra-
ton oI ôrth-[ast Chna. Almost mmcdatcly, lson startcd
tocomposc a pocmconccvcd as a rcsponsc to [lot`smodcrnst
mastcrpccc - in hs own words, an Anti- Wasteland. '' Mc
hnshcd a hrst draIt bcIorc thc IA crosscd thc Yangtzc. Jhc
pocmwascomplctcd n thc summcratlackNountan. Shang-
ha had Iallcn, but Cuangzhou and Chongqng wcrc stll undcr
KNJ control, thc coplc`s Rcpublc had not yct bccn pro-
clamcd. The Kingfshers, wthtsgrcatmonosyllabccxordum.
Vhatdocsnotchangc/sthcwllto changc
placcs thc Chncscrcvoluton not undcr thc sgn oIthc ncw, but
oI thc anccnt. Jhc pocm opcns wth thc lcgcnd oI Angkor
Vat`s tradc nthc bluc-grccn plumagc oIthc knghshcr and thc
cngma oI lutarch`s rock at clph, ntcrscctng Nao`s rcport
tothcCC - tmcand spaccncountcr-pontcd balancc.
lthoughtoIthc[onthcstonc,andoIwhatNaosad
'lalumcrc
butthcknghshcr
'dcl` aurorc
butthc knghshcrflcwwcst
'cstdcvantnous!`
hcgotthccoloroIhsbrcast
IromthchcatoIthcscttngsun!
Jhc lyrcal transIuson s brcI. ornthology dspcls thc
attrbutcsoIthcFour Quartets.
Jhclcgcndsarc
lcgcnds. Dcad,hungup,thcknghshcr
wllnotndcatcaIavorngwnd,
` For Olson's manuscript note defning his poem against Eliot's, see George
Butterwick's magisterial essay, 'Charles Olson's "The Kingfshers" and the Poetics
of Change', American Poetry, V, No 2, Winter 1989, pp. 56 -57.
9
or avcrtthcthundcrbolt.ôr, by tsncstng,
stllthcwatcrs,wththcncwycar,Iorscvcndays.
Away Irom any currcnt, dccp n thc tunncl oI a bank, thc
wcstcrng brd crcatcs a Ioul ncst Irom thc rcmans oIts prcy.
Vhatsacralandrdcsccntsnurturcdnhlthanddarkncss.
nthcscrcicctamcnta
'asthcyaccumulatcthcyIormacup-shapcd
structurc thc young arc born.
And, asthcyarcIcdandgrow,ths
ncstoIcxcrcmcnt, and dccaycd hshbccomcs
adrppngIctdmass
Naoconcludcd.
nousdcvons
nouslcvcr
ctagr!
'
`
Jhcpocm,howcvcr, comprchcnsvclypcrssts.
Jhclightsnthccast.Ycs.Andwcmustrisc,act.Yct
nthcwcst, dcsptcthcapparcntdarkncss 'thcwhtcncss
whchcovcrsall Iyou look, Iyoucanbcar,Iyoucan,
longcnough
aslongastwasncccssaryIorhm,mygudc
to lookntothcycllowoIthatlongcst-lastngrosc,
soyoumust
or thc orignal pcoplcs oI Amcrca oncc camc Irom Asa, and
thcr cvlzatons - howcvcr sombrc - wcrc lcss brutal than
thosc oI thc [uropcans who conqucrcd thcm, lcaving to thcr
dcsccndants runcs oI a liIc still to bc rccovcrcd. [chong a linc
` Mao's call forms the fnal words of his Report to the meeting of the Central
Committee of the CCP held on 25-28 December 1947 at Yangjiagou in Shaanxi.
See 'The Present Situation and Our Tasks', Selected Works, Vol 4, Beijing 1969,
p. 173. Olson cited them in the French translation of the speech passed to him by
Jean Riboud.
-
10
PRODROMES
Irom ^cruda` s Alturas de Macchu-Picchu, translatcd a Icw
months bcIorc-
ôtoncdcathbutmany,
notaccumulatonbut changc, thcIccd-backprovcs,
thcIccd-back s
thclaw
- thc pocm cnds wth thc scarch Ior a Iuturc hddcn n grubs
andruns.
poscyouyourqucston.
shallyouuncovcrhoncy/whcrcmaggotsarc?
lhuntamongstoncs
lson`s acsthctc manIcsto, Projective Verse, appcarcd thc
Iollowng ycar. ts advocacy oI opcn-hcld composton as a
dcvclopmcnt oI thc obi cctvst lnc oI ound and Villiams
bccamc his most nflucntal statcmcnt. ut thc rcccpton oI it
gcncrally Ialcd to rcspcctthc motto hc adoptcd Irom Crcclcy-
'Iorm s ncvcr morc than ancxtcnsonoIcontcnt` '' - to lson`s
poctry tsclI. cwpoctshavcbccntrcatcd morc Iormally sncc.
n Iact, lson`s thcmcs makc up a complexio oppositorum
unlkc any othcr. A hcrcc crtc oI rationalist humansm - 'that
pccular prcsumption by which wcstcrn man has intcrposcd
himsclI bctwccn what hc s as a crcaturc oI naturc and thosc
othcr crcatons oI naturc which wc may, wth no dcrogation,
call obiccts`'` - lson could sccm closcto a Mcdcggcranscnsc
oI cng as prmal ntcgrity. Yct hc trcatcd automobilcs
domcstc Iamliars in his vcrsc, and was thc hrst poct to
on ôrbcrt Vicncr` s cybcrnctcs. Mc was much attractcd
anccnt culturcs, Nayan or prc-Socratic, rcgarding thc brth o!

archacologyas adccsvcprogrcssnhumanknowlcdgc, bccausc
t could hclprccovcrthcm. ut hc saw thcIuturcas a collcctvc
` 'Projective Verse', Selected Writings of Charles Olson, edited by Robert Creeley,
New York 1966, p. 16.
` 'Projective Verse', p. 24.
1 1
proicct oI human sclI-dctcrmnaton - man as 'prospcctvc` .
Anaxmandcr layat onc cnd oI hs magnaton, Rmbaudatthc
othcr. A dcmocrat and ant-Iascst, lson assumcd thc pcrsona
oIYcatstodcIcndoundIromprson,andasapatrotproduccd
pcrhaps thc only unmysthcd pocm on thc \S Cvl Var. '
Contcmporaryrcvoluton camc Irom thc [ast, butAmcrca was
subioncd to Asa. thc colours oI dawn n Chna and oI f|ght
nto thc Vcst rcf|cctcd thc lght oI a snglc orbt. Jhc phrasc
lson uscd to dcscrbc hmsclI - 'aItcr thc dspcrson, an
archacologstoImornng` - catchcsmostoIthcscmcanngs.
twas hcrc,thcn,that thc clcmcntsIor an aIhrmatvc conccp-
ton oI thc postmodcrn wcrc hrst asscmblcd. n lson, an
acsthctc thcory was lnkcd to a prophctc hstory, wth an
agcnda allyngpoctc nnovaton wth poltcal rcvolutonnthc
classc tradton oI thc avant-gardcs oI prc-war [uropc. Jhc
contnuty wth thc orgnal Stimmung oI modcrnsm, n an
clcctrcscnscoIthcprcscntasIraughtwthamomcntousIuturc,
s strkng. ut no commcnsuratc doctrnc crystallzcd. lson,
who thought oI hmsclI as tmorous, was ntcrrogatcd by thc
Ior suspcct war-tmc assocatons n thc carly hItcs. lack
Nountan Collcgc, oI whch hc was thc lastrncpal, shut ts
doors n19^. n thcycars oIrcacton,hspoctrybccamcmorc
stragglngandgnomc.JhcrcIcrcntoIthcpostmodcrnlapscd.
New York - Harvard - Chicago
y thc cnd oI thc hItcs, whcn thc tcrm rcappcarcd, t had
passcd nto othcr - morc or lcss casual - hands, as a ncgatvc
markcr oI what was /css, not morc, than modcrn. n 199 C.
Vrght Nlls and rvng Mowc - not concdcntally. thcy
bclongcd to a common mlcu oI thc ^cw York IcIt - both
cmloycd t n ths scnsc. Jhc socologst, n morc caustc
Iashon, uscd thc tcrm to dcnotc an agc n whch thc modcrn
dcals oI lbcralsm and socalsm had all but collapscd, as
`
^
Anecdotes of the Late War, which starts: 'the lethargic vs. violence as alternatives
of each other/for los americanos', and ends: 'Grant didn't hurry./He just had the
most./ /More of the latter died.' Compare the well-meaning pieties of For the Union
Dead.
12
PRODROMES
rcasonandIrccdom partcdcompany napostmodcrnsocctyoI
blnd drIt and cmpty conIormty. Jhc crtc, n mldcr toncs,
borrowcdtto dcscrbcacontcmporaryhctonunablcto sustan
modcrnst tcnson wth a surroundng soccty whosc class
dvsons had bccomc ncrcasngly amorphous wth post-war
prospcrty.' A ycar latcr Marry Icvn, drawng on Joynbcc`s
usagc,gavcthcdcaoIpostmodcrnIormsamuchsharpcrtwst,
to dcpctancpgonc ltcraturc thathad rcnounccd thc strcnuous
ntcllcctual standards oI modcrnsm Ior a rclaxcd mddlc-brow
synthcss - thc sgn oI a ncw complcty bctwccn artst and
bourgcos, at a suspcct cross-roads bctwccn culturc and com-
mcrcc. Mcrc laythcbcgnnngsoI anuncquvocallypci oratvc
vcrsonoIthcpostmodcrn.
n thc sxtcs, t changcd as - stll largcly- advcnttous sgn
agan. MalI-way through thc dccadc thc crtc Icslc cdlcr,
tcmpcramcntalantthcssoIIcvn, addrcsscd aconIcrcnccspon-
sorcd by thc Congrcss oI Cultural rccdom, sct up by thc CA
Ior work on thc ntcllcctual Iront oI thc Cold Var. n ths
unlkclyscttng, hccclcbratcdthccmcrgcncc oIancwscnsblty
among thc youngcr gcncraton n Amcrca, who wcrc 'drop-
outs Iromhstory` - culturalmutantswhosc valucs oInoncha-
lancc and dsconncxon, hallucnogcns and cvl rghts, wcrc
hndng wclcomc cxprcsson n a Ircsh postmodcrn ltcraturc.
`'We are at the ending of what is called The Modern Age. Just as Antiquity was
followed by several centuries of Oriental ascendancy, which Westerners provincially
call the Dark Ages, so now The Modern Age is being succeeded by a postmodern
period': C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination, New York 1959,
pp. 165-167.
0
Irving Howe, 'Mass Society and Post-Modern Fiction', Partisan Review, S
er
1959, pp. 420-436; reprinted in Decline of the New, New York 19
pp. 190-207, with a postscript. Howe's article, although it makes no referenc
Mills's work, is clearly dependent on it, especially White Collar: see in part "
his description of a 'mass society' that is 'half-welfare and half-garrison', in wh:
'coherent publics fall apart'.
` 'What was Modernism?', The Massachusetts Review, August 1960, pp. 609-630;
reprinted in Refractions, New York 1966, pp. 271-295, with a prefatory note.
'The New Mutants', Partisan Review, Summer 1965, pp. 505-525; reprinted in
Collected Papers, Vol 2, New York 1971, pp. 379-400. Howe, as might be
expected, complained about this text in a querulous survey, 'The New York
Intellectuals', Commentary, October 1968, p. 49; reprinted in The Decline of the
New, pp. 260-261.
13
Jhs,cdlcrlatcrcxplancd nPlayboy, wouldcrossclasscsand
mx gcnrcs, rcpudatng thc roncs and solcmntcsoImodcrn-
sm, notto spcakoItsdstnctonsbctwccnhghandlow,nan
unnhbtcd rcturn to thc scntmcntal and burlcsquc. y 1969
cdlcr`srcndtonoIthcpostmodcrncouldbcsccn,ntsclams
oI dcmotc cmancpaton and nstnctual rclcasc, as oIIcrng a
prudcntly dcpoltczcd ccho oI thc studcnt nsurgcncy oI thc
tmc, othcrwsc scarccly to bc attrbutcd wth ndIIcrcncc to
hstory.` A smlar rcIracton can bc dctcctcd n thc socology
oI Amta [tzon, latcr Iamous Ior hs prcachng oI moral
communty, whosc book The Active Society - dcdcatcd to hs
studcnts at Columba and crkclcy n thc ycar oI campus
rcbcllon- prcscntcd a 'post-modcrn` pcrod, datablcIrom thc
cnd oI thc war, n whch thc powcr oI bg busncss and
cstablshcd cltcs was dcclnng, and soccty could Ior thc hrst
tmc bccomc a dcmocracy that was 'mastcr oI tsclI`.' Jhc
nvcrsonoIthcargumcnt oIThe Sociological Imagination s all
butcomplctc.
ut I thc usagcs oI Mowc and Nlls wcrc rcvcrscd wth
dscplnary symmctry by cdlcr and [tzon, all wcrc stll
tcrmnologcal mprovsaton or happcnstancc. Sncc thc
modcrn - acsthctc or hstorcal - s always n prncplc what
mghtbc callcd aprcscnt-absolutc,t crcatcs a pccular dIhculty
Ior thc dchnton oIany pcrod bcyond t, that would convcrt t
to a rclatvc past. nths scnsc, thc makcshIt oIa smplc prchx
- dcnotng what comcs aItcr - s vrtually nhcrcnt n thc
conccpt tsclI, onc that could bc morc or lcss countcd on n
advancctorccurwhcrcvcra stray nccd Ior a markcr oItcmporal
dIIcrcncc mght bc Iclt. Rcsort oI ths knd to thc tcrm 'post
modcrn` has always bccn oI crcumstantal sgnhcancc. ut
thcorctcal dcvclopmcnt s anothcr mattcr. Jhc noton oI thc
postmodcrn dd not acqurc any wdcr dIIuson tll thc
scvcntcs.
'Cross the Border, Close the Gap' , Playboy, December 1 969, pp. 151, 230,
252-258; reprinted in Collected Papers, Vol 2, pp. 461-485.
The Active Society, New York 1968, pp. vii, 528.

14
=
====== 7
LIVsIaIIIzaIIGn
Athens - Cairo - Las Vegas
Jhc rcal turnng-pont camc wththc appcarancc nIall19/2 at
nghamton oI a i ournal cxprcssly subttlcd aJournal of Post
modern Literature and Culture - thc rcvcw boundary 2. Jhc
lcgacy oI lson had rc-surIaccd. Jhc kcy-notc cssay nthc hrst
ssuc, by avd Antn, was cnttlcd. 'Nodcrnsm and ost-
Nodcrnsm. Approachng thc rcscnt n Amcrcan octry`.
Antn rakcd thc wholc canon runnng Irom [lot and Jatc
to Audcn and Iowcll, wth glancng hrc cvcn at ound, as
a surrcpttously provncal and rcgrcssvc tradton, whosc
mctrcal-moral propcnstcs had nothng to do wth gcnunc
ntcrnatonal modcrnsm - thc lnc oI Apollnarc, Narnctt,
Khlcbnkov, Iorca, ]zscI, ^cruda - whosc prncplc was dra-
matc collagc. n post-war Amcrca, twas thc lack Nountan
pocts, and abovc all Charlcs lson, who had rccovcrcd its
cncrgics.' Jhc vtalty oI thc postmodcrn prcscnt, aItcr
brcak-down oI an cnIccblcd poctc orthodoxy n thc

six
.
owcd cvcrythng to ths cxamplc. A ycar latcr, bounda
dcvotcd a doublc-ssuc to 'Charlcs lson. Rcmnsccnccs,

'The appearance of Olson and the Black Mountain poets was the beginning of the
end for the Metaphysical Modernist tradition, which was by no means a "modern
ist" tradition but an anomaly peculiar to American and English poetry. It was the
result of a collision of strongly anti-modernist and provincial sensibilities with the
hybrid moderism of Pound and the purer modernism of Gertrude Stein and
William Carlos Williams' : boundary 2, I, No 1, p. 120. Antin took Olson's great
'As the Dead Prey Upon Us' as his emblem of the new poetics.
15
[ssays, Rcvcws` - thc hrst Iull-scalc apprccaton smcc hs
dcath.
t was thsrcccptonthatIor thc hrsttmc stablzcd thc dca
oI thc postmodcrn as a collcctvc rcIcrcncc. n thc proccss,
howcvcr,tundcrwcntanaltcraton. lson`scallIor aproi cctvc
ltcraturc bcyond humansm was rcmcmbcrcd and honourcd.
ut hs poltcal attachmcnt to an unbddcn Iuturc bcyond
captalsm - thc othcr sdc oI Rmbaud`s 'couragc` salutcd n
The Kingfshers - passcd out oI sght. ôtthatboundary 2 was
dcvod oI radcal mpulsc. ts crcator,Vllam Spanos, dccdcd
to Iound thc i ournal as a rcsult oI hs shock at \S colluson
wth thc Crcck]unta, whlc a vstng tcachcr at thc \nvcrsty
oI Athcns. Mc latcr cxplancd that 'at that tmc, Nodcrn
mcant, ltcrally, thc Nodcrnst ltcraturc that had prccptatcd
thc ^cw Crtcsm and thc ^cw Crtcsm whch had dchncd
Nodcrnsm n ts own autotclc tcrms` . n Athcns hc scnscd 'a
knd oI complcty` bctwccn ths cstablshcd orthodoxy, n
whch hc had bccn trancd, and thc callous oIhcaldom hc was
wtncssng. n rcturnng to Amcrca, hc conccvcd boundary 2
as a brcak wth both. At thc hcght oIthc \ctnam Var, hs am
was to 'gct ltcraturc back nto thc doman oI thc world`, at a
tmc oI'thc most dramatc momcnt oI Amcrcan hcgcmony and
ts collapsc`, and to dcmonstratc that 'postmodcrnsm s a knd
oI rciccton, an attack, an undcrmnng oIthc acsthctc Iormal-
smandconscrvatvcpoltcs oIthc^cwCrtcsm` .
utthc courscoIthci ournalwasncvcrqutctoconcdcwth
ts ntcnton. Spanos`s own rcsstancc to thc ^xon rcsdcncy
was not n doubt - hc was lockcd up Ior a dcmonstraton
aganstt. ut twcnty ycars oI Cold Var had madc thc clmatc
unproptousIoraIusonoIculturalandpoltcalvson. lson`s
unty was not rctrcvcd. Boundary 2 tsclI rcmancd, n ts
cdtor`s ownrctrospcct, csscntally altcraryi ournal, markcd by
'A Conversation with William Spanos', boundary 2, Summer 1 990, pp. 1-3,
16-1 7. This interview, by Paul Bove - Spanos's successor as editor of the joural
is a fundamental document for a history of the idea of the postmodern. After
speaking of his arrest in protest against the bombing of Cambodia, Spanos
acknowledges that 'I didn't quite associate what I was doing as a citizen with my
literary, critical perspective. I don't want to say that they were absolutely dis
tinguished, but I wasn't self-conscious of the connections'.
16
CRYSTALLIZATI ON
an cxstcntalsm orgnally Sartrcan n sympathy, and thcn
ncrcasngly drawn to Mcdcggcr. Jhc rcsult was to nf|cct
lson`s obi cctvsm towards a Mcdcggcran mctaphyscs oI
cng,thatnduccoursc bccamc adomnantstrand nboundar
2. Jhc ntra-mundanc spacc oI thc postmodcrn was thcrcby -
so to spcak - lcIt vacant. t was soon, howcvcr, occupcd by a
latcral cntrant. Among carly contrbutors to thc i ournal was
hab Massan, a crtc who had publshcd hs hrst cssay on
postmodcrnsm iust bcIorc t was launchcd. An [gyptan by
brth- son oIanarstocratcgovcrnor bctwccn thc wars, Iamous
Ior rcprcsson oI a natonalst dcmonstraton aganst rtsh
tutclagc` - and cngnccr by tranng, Massan`s orgnal ntcrcst
hadlanna hgh modcrnsm parcd to an cxprcssvc mnmum.
whathccallcd a 'ltcraturc oIslcncc`, passng downIromKaIka
to cckctt. Vhcn hc advanccd thc noton oIpostmodcrnsm n
19/1, howcvcr, Massan subsumcd ths dcsccnt nto a much
wdcr spcctrum oI tcndcnccs that cthcr radcalzcd or rcIuscd
lcadng trats oI modcrnsm. a conhguraton that cxtcndcd to
thcvsualarts,musc,tcchnology, andscnsbltyatlargc.'
An cxtcnsvc cnumcraton oI trcnds and artsts Iollowcd,
Irom Nalcr to Tel Que!, Mppcs to Conccptualsm. Vthn a
hctcrogcncous rangc, howcvcr, a corc clustcr was dsccrnblc.
JhrccnamcsrccurrcdwthspccalIrcqucncy.]ohnCagc,Robcrt
Rauschcnbcrgand uckmnstcrullcr. All oIthcscwcrc assoc-
atcdwth lack Nountan Collcgc. Abscnt, onthc othcr hand,
3 In 1930 Ismael Sidky, backed by the Palace and the British, closed the Egyptian
parliament. Riots broke out across the country and were met with force. Casualties
were particularly heavy at El Mansura. 'By the day's end, six people lay dead in the
streets, four students in their teens. No one counted the wounded . . . I felt
'
loyalties torn between my father and his foes. Three years later, Mustafa el
became prime minister of Egypt. My father was forced to resign': Ihab Hassan,,
of Egypt. Scenes and Arguments of an Autobiography, Carbondale 198,
pp. 46-48: in more than one way, a suggestive memoir. For an anguished eye
witness account of the massacre, seen as an eleven-year-old from a balcony above
it, compare the very different memoir of the Egyptian feminist Latifa Zayyat: The
Search, London 1996, pp. 41-43. The background to these events is set out by
Jacques Berque, L'Egypte - Imperialisme et Revolution, Paris 1 967, pp. 452-460.
'POSTmoderiSM: a Paracritical Bibliography', New Literary History, Autumn
1 971, pp. 5-30; reprinted with some small alterations in The Postmodern Turn,
Ithaca 1987, pp. 25-45.
was lson. M s placc was, as t wcrc, occupcd by a Iourth
hgurc - Narshall NcIuhan. n ths combnaton, thc pvot was
clcarly Cagc. closc Ircnd oI Rauschcnbcrg and ullcr, and
warm admrcr oI NcIuhan. Cagc was also, oI coursc, thc
lcadng acsthctcan oI slcncc, hs composton 1/JJ' Iamously
cxcccdng thc gcsturc oI any wordlcss drama. Vhcn Massan
concludcd hssurvcy oIthcmotlcy ndccs oIpostmodcrnsm -
runnng Irom Spaccshp [arthtothc Clobal\llagc, Iacton and
happcnng,alcatoryrcductonandparodccxtravaganza,mpcr-
mancncc and ntcrmcda - and soughtto synthcszc thcm as so
many 'anarchcs oI thc sprt`, playIully subvcrtng thc alooI
vcrtcs oI modcrnsm, thc composcr was onc oI thcvcry Icw
artstswhocouldplausblybcassocatcdwthmostoIthcbll.
nsubscqucntcssays, Massan cnlstcd oucault`snoton oIan
cpstcmc brcak to suggcst comparablc shIts n sccncc and
phlosophy, n thc wakc oI Mcscnbcrg or ^ctzschc. n ths
vcn, hc argucdthatthcundcrlyng unty oIthcpostmodcrnlay
n 'thc play oI ndctcrmnacy andmmancncc`,whosc orgnat-
ng gcnusnthc artshad bccnNarccl uchamp. Jhclst oIhs
succcssors ncludcd Ashbcry, arth, arthclmc and ynchon n
ltcraturc, Rauschcnbcrg, Varhol, Jngucly n thc vsual arts.
y 198O, Massan had anncxcd vrtually a complctcrostcr oI
poststructuralst motIs nto an claboratc taxonomy oI thc
dIIcrcncc bctwccn postmodcrn and modcrn paradgms, and
cxpandcd hs Cotha oI practtoncrs yct Iurthcr.` ut a largcr
problcm rcmancd. spostmodcrnsm,hc askcd, 'onlyanartstc
tcndcncyoralso a socal phcnomcnon:` , and 'Iso, howarcthc
varous aspccts oIths phcnomcnon- psychologcal,phlosoph-
cal, cconomc,poltcal - i oncd or dsioncd:` . Jothcsc qucs-
tons, Massanrcturncdno cohcrcntanswcr,thoughmakngonc
sgnhcant obscrvaton. 'ostmodcrnsm, as a modc oI ltcrary
changc, could bc dstngushcd Irom thc oldcr avant-gardcs
' Cubsm, utursm, adasm, Surrcalsm ctc as wcll as Irom
modcrnsm`, hc wrotc. '^cthcr lympan and dctachcd lkcrhc
` Respectively: 'Culture, Indeterminacy and Immanence: Margins of the (Postmod
ern) Age', Humanities in Society, No 1, Winter 1978, pp. 51-85, and 'The Question
of Postmodernism', Bucknell Review, 1980, pp. 117-126; reprinted in The Post
modern Turn, pp. 46-83, and (revised as 'The Concept of Postmoderism' )
pp. 84-96.
1 8
'
I
CRYSTALLIZATI ON
lattcr norohcman and Iractous lkc thc Iormcr, postmodcrn-
sm suggcsts a dIIcrcnt knd oI accommodaton bctwccn art
an
d soccty` .'
Vhat knd: I thc dIIcrcncc was to bc cxplorcd, t would bc
dIhcult to avod poltcs. ut hcrc Massandrcw back. ' conIcss
to somc somc dstastc Ior dcologcal ragc 'thc worst arc now
Iull oI passonatc ntcnsty and lack all convcton and Ior thc
hcctorng oI rclgous and sccular dogmatsts. admt to a
ccrtan ambvalcncc towards poltcs, whch can ovcrcrowd our
rcsponscs to both art and lIc`. Mc was soon morc spcchc
about hs dslkcs, attackng Narxst crtcs Ior submsson to
'thc ron yokc oI dcology` n 'thcr conccalcd socal dctcrmn-
sm, collcctvst bas, dstrust oI acsthctc plcasurc`. rcIcrablc
by Iar, as a phlosophy Ior postmodcrnty, was 'thc bluII
tolcrancc and optatvc sprt oI Amcrcan pragmatsm`, abovc
all nthc cxpansvc, cclcbratory shapc oIVllam ]amcs, whosc
pluralsm oIIcrcd cthcal balm Ior currcnt anxctcs. As Ior
poltcs, thc old dstnctons had lost vrtually any mcanng.
Jcrms lkc 'lcIt and rght, basc and supcrstructurc, producton
andrcproducton,matcralsmanddcalsm`hadbccomc'ncarly
unscrvccablc,cxccpttopcrpctuatcprciudcc`-
Massan`s constructon oIthc postmodcrn, ponccrng though
many oI ts pcrccptons wcrc - hc was thc hrst to strctch t
across thc arts, and to notc wng-marks latcr wdcly acccptcd-
thus had a bult-nlmt. thcmovctothc socal was barrcd. Jhs
was surcly onc rcason why hc wthdrcw Irom thc hcld at thc
cnd oI thc cghtcs. ut thcrc was anothcr, ntcrnal to hs
account oI thc arts thcmsclvcs. Massan`s orgnal commtmcnt
was to cxaspcratcd Iorms oI classc modcrnsm - uchamp or.
cckctt. iust what c nis had prcsccntly tcrmcd
modcrnsm` n thc thrtcs. Vhcn hc startcd to cxplorc
cultural sccnc oI thc scvcntcs, Massan construcd t c
nantly through ths prsm. Jhc stratcgc rolc Icll to vanguards

traccablc back to thc matrx oI lack Nountan. Such an
'The Question of Postmodernism', pp. 122-124; the last sentence does not appear
in the revised version published in The Postmodern Turn, pp. 89-91.
'Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective' (1986), in The Postmodern Turn, p. 178.
8 The Postmodern Turn, pp. 203-205, 232.
The Postmodern Tur, p. 227.
19
THE ORI GI NS OF POSTMODERNITY
cstmatc had much to bc sad Ior t. ut thcrc was always
anothcr aspcct oIthc vcw Massan was tryng to dcscrbc, that
was Iar c|oscr to thc |angud or dccoratvc nvo|uton oI
modcrnst elan whchc iis had contrastcd as 'postmodcrn-
sm`. Varholcou|dstandasshort-handIorthsstrand.
Massan`s orgnal conspcctus nc|udcd t, Iwthoutcmphass.
vcrtmc,howcvcr,hc scnscdthatthswaspcrhapsthcovcral|
drcctonnwhchthcpostmodcrnwastcndng.Atmd-dccadc,
a dcsgn cxhbtonn thc Crand alas, Styles 85, dsp|ayng a
vast array oI postmodcrn obi ccts 'Irom thumbtacks to yachts`,
|cd hm to a ccrtan rcvu|son. 'Va|kng through thc brght
Iarrago, hcctarcs oIesprit, parody, pcrsf|agc, Ic|tthc sm|c on
my |ps Ircczc` . ' Vhcnhc camc to wrtc thc ntroductontohs
co||cctcd tcxts on thc topc, The Postmodern Turn n196/, hc
madc t c|car thctt|c was also a knd oI Iarcwcl|. 'ostmodcrn-
sm tsclIhas changcd, takcn, as scc t, thcwrongturn. Caught
bctwccn dco|ogca| truculcncc and dcmystIyng nugacty,
, caught n ts own ktsch, postmodcrnsm has bccomc a knd oI
cc|cctcra||cry, thc rchncdprurcnccoIour borrowcd plcasurcs

andtrvaldsbclcIs` . ' '
n thc vcry rcason why Massan bccamc dsabuscd wth thc
postmodcrn,howcvcr, |ay thc sourcc oI nspraton Iorthcmost
promncnt thcorzaton oI t to succccd hs own. roncal|y, t
wasthcarttowhchhcgavclcastattcntonthathna||yproicctcd
thc tcrm nto thc publc doman at |argc. n 19/2 Robcrt
\cntur and hs assocatcs cnsc Scott rown and Stcvcn
zcnour pub|shcd thc archtcctura| manIcsto oI thc dccadc,
Learning from Las Vegas. \cntur had a|rcady madc hs namc
wth an clcgant crtquc oI thc purst orthodoxy oI thc ntcr-
natona| Stylc nthc agc oI Ncs, nvokng Nanncrst, aroquc,
Rococo and [dwardan mastcrpcccs as a|tcrnatvc va|ucs Ior
contcmporary practcc.''nthc ncw book,hcand hs co|lcagucs
launchcd a much morc conoc|astc attack on Nodcrnsm, n
thc namc oI thc vta| popular magcry oI thc gamb|ng strp.
10
The Postmodern Turn. p. 229.
11
The Postmodern Turn, p. xvii.
1
2 Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, New York 1966: 'Architects can
no longer afford to be intimidated by the puritanically moral language of orthodox
Modern architecture' - 'More is not less': p. 1 6.
20
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
Mcrc,thcyargucd, wast obcIounda spcctacu|ar rcncwa|oIthc
hstorc assocaton oI archtccturc wth pantng, graphcs and
sculpturc - an cxubcrant prmacy oI symbo| ovcr spacc - that
Nodcrnsm had to ts cost Iorcsworn. t was tmc to rcturn to
Ruskn`s dctum that archtccturc was thc dccoraton oI
constructon.
c|vcrcdwthanaroIcasua||carnng,thc|ad-backmcssagc
oILearning from Las Vegas rcstcd onprcmscsthatwou|dhavc
dumbIoundcd Ruskn. '1hc commcrcal strp cha||cngcs thc
archtcct to takc a postvc, non-chp-on-thc-shou|dcr vcw`,
\cntur and hs co||cagucs wrotc. 'Ias \cgas`s valucs arc not
qucstoncd hcrc. 1hc mora|ty oI commcrca| advcrtsng, gam-
b|ng ntcrcsts, and thc compcttvc nstnct s not at ssuc`. '`
orma|ana|yss oIthc i oyousrotoIsgnsnthc dcscrt sky dd
not ncccssar|y prcc|udc soca| i udgcmcnt, but t dd rulc out
onc standpont. ' rthodox Nodcrn archtccturc s progrcssvc,
I notrcvo|utonary, utopan and purstc. t s dssatshcd wth
existing condtons`. utthcarchtcct` sprncpa|conccrn'ought
not to bc wth ought to bc but wth what s` and 'how to hclp
mprovc t`.' chnd thc modcst ncutralty oI ths agcnda -
'whcthcr soccty was rght or wrong was not Ior us at that
momcntto arguc` - |aya dsarmng opposton. Contrastng thc
planncd monotony oImodcrnstmcgastructurcs wth thcvgour
and hctcrogcncty oIspontancous urban sprawl, Learning from
Las Vegas summcd upthc dchotomybctwccnthcmnaphrasc.
'uldng Ior Nan` vs. 'uldng Ior mcn 'markcts `. 1hc
smp|cty oI thc parcnthcss says cvcrythng. Mcrc, spc|t out
wth bcgu|ng candour, was thc ncw rc|atonshp bctwccn art
andsocctyMassansurmscdbutIalcd todchnc.
\cntur` s programmc, cxprcssly dcsgncd to supcrscdc
modcrn, st|| |ackcd a namc. t was not long comng. y
thc tcrm 'postmodcrn` - antcpatcd adccadc carlcr by
to castgatc a wcak hstorcsm - had cntcrcd thc art world tH
^cw York, whcrc pcrhaps thc hrst archtcct to usc t vas
\cntur`s studcnt Robcrt Stcrn. ut thc crtc who madc ts
Learning from Las Vegas, Cambridge, Mass. 1972, p. 0 [sic].
Learning fom Las Vegas, pp. 0, 85.
1
5 Learning from Las Vegas, p. 84.
21
fortune was Charles]encks, the hrstedtonofwhoseLanguage
of Post-modern Architecture appeared n 19//. Much more
polemcal n hs obsequy for modernsm - allegedly consgned
to oblvonn19/2,wththethe demoltonofahgh-rsenthe
Md-Vest - ]encks was at hrst also more crtcal than \entur
of Amercan captalsm, and of the colluson between the two
n the prncpal types of post-war buldng commsson. ut,
whle argung the need for a broader semotc range than
\entur had allowed, to nclude conc as well as symbolc
forms, hs prescrptons were essentally based on the deas of
Learning from Las Vegas- nclusve varety, popularlegblty,
contextual sympathy. Despte hs ttle, ]encks was ntally
hestant aboutcallngthesevalues 'post-modern`,sncetheterm
was - he confessed - 'evasve, fashonable and worst of all
negatve` . ' ls preferred archtecturewould be betterdescrbed
as 'radcal eclectcsm` , even 'tradtonalesque`, and ts only
accomplshedexemplartodatewasAntonoCaudi.
Vthn a year ]encks had changed hs mnd, fully adoptng
the dea ofthepostmodernandnowtheorzngts eclectcsm as
a style of 'double-codng`: that s, an archtecture employng a
hybrd of modern and hstorcst syntax, and appealng both to
educated taste and popular sensblty. It was ths lberatne
mixture ofnew and old, hgh andlow, whchdehnedpostmod-
ernsm as a movement, and assured t the future. In 196
1 6
The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, New York 1977, p. 7. Prompted in
part by the work of the Marxist critic Malcolm MacEwan, a colleague of Edward
Thompson on The New Reasoner, at this stage Jencks offered a periodization of
'modes of architectural production' - mini-capitalist; welfare state capitalist;
monopoly capitalist, or the new, all-pervasive dominance of the commercial
developer. 'Several modern architects, in a desperate attempt to cheer themselves
up, have decided that since this is an inevitable situation, it must also have its good
points . . . "Main Street is almost all right", according to Robert Venturi' :
pp. 1 1-12, 35.
17
The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, revised and enlarged Edition, New
York 1978, pp. 6-8: 'Moderism suffers from elitism. Post-Modernism is trying to
get over that elitism', by reaching out 'towards the vernacular, towards tradition
and the commercial slang of the street' - 'architecture, which has been on an
enforced diet for ffty years, can only enjoy itself and grow stronger and deeper as a
result'. Discussion of the Pre-Modernist Gaudi was dropped from the new version,
on grounds of consistency.
22
CRYSTALLIZATI ON
]encks helped organze the archtectural secton of the \ence
ennale mounted byIaoloIortoghes, a llamboyant poneer of
postmodern practce, enttled ']he Iresence of Iast', whch
attracted wde nternatonal attenton. y now ]encks had
becomeatrelessenthusastofthecause,andprolhctaxonomer
of ts development. ' ls most sgnhcant move was to ds
tngush, early on, 'late modern` from 'post-modern` archtec-
ture. Droppng the clam that modernsm had collapsed n the
early seventes, ]encks conceded that ts dynamc stll survved,
f n paroxysmc form, as an aesthetc oftechnologcal prowess
ncreasnglydetachedfrom functonalpretexts - butstll mper-
vous to the play of retrospect and alluson that marked
postmodernsm. Ioster and Rogers as aganst Moore and
Craves. ' ]hs was the archtectural equvalent ofthe lterature
champonedbylassan - ultra-modernsm.
otng the parallel, ]encks reversed the opposton between
De nis`s terms wthout qualms. o matter how productve t
mght seem - lke the cross-bow nthe hrst years ofhre-arms-
such ultra-modernsm was hstorcally a rearguard. It was
postmodernsm,tssymbolcresources answerng tothecontem-
porary need for a new sprtualty, as once the exuberant
baroque ofthe Counter-Reformatonhad done,thatrepresented
the advanced art of the age. y the md-eghtes ]encks was
celebratng the Iost-Modern as a world cvlzaton of plural
tolerance and superabundant choce, that was 'makng non-
sense` of such outmoded polartes as 'left- and rght-wng,
captalst and workng class` . In a socety where nformaton
now mattered more than producton, 'there s no longer an
artstc avant-garde`, snce 'there sno enemy to conquer` nthc
global electronc network. In the emancpated condtons
today`s art, 'rather there are countless ndvduals n Tok
ew York, erln, Iondon, Mlan and other world c
communcatng and competng wth each other, i ustasthey are
`
^
He would later claim that 'the response to my lectures and articles was so forceful
and widespread that it created Post-Modernism as a social and architectural
movement': Post-Modernism: the New Classicism in Art and Architecture, New
York 1987, p. 29.
` Late Modern Architecture, New York 1980, pp. 10-30.
23
nthe bankng world`.'utofther kaledoscopc creatons, t
was to be hoped, mght emerge 'a shared symbolc order ofthe
knd that a relgon provdes`'' - the ultmate agenda of post-
modernsm. In aesthetc cross-dress, ]oynbee`s syncretstc
dreamhadreturned.
Montreal - Paris
]he archtectural capture of the blazon of the postmodern,
whchcanbedatedfrom19//-/8,proveddurable.]heprmary
assocaton of the term has ever snce been wth the newest
forms of bult space. ut ths shft was followed, all but
mmedately, by a further extenson of ts range, n an unex-
pected drecton. ]he hrst phlosophcal work to adopt the
notonwas]ean-Iranos Iyotard`s La Condition Postmoderne,
whchappearednIarsn19/9. Iyotard had acquredtheterm
drectly from lassan. ]hree years earler, he had addressed a
conference at Mlwaukee on the postmodern nthe performng
arts orchestrated by lassan. Declarng 'the stakes of post-
modernsm as a whole` were 'not to exhbt truthwthn the
closure of representaton but to set up perspectives wthn the
return of the will', Iyotard extolled Mchael Snow`s famous
expermental hlm ofan empty Canadan landscape scanned by
an mmoble swvellng camera, and Duchamp`s spatal proiec-
tons.'' ls new book was qute close to a themenlassan -
the epstemologcal mplcatons of recent advances n the
natural scences. ]he mmedate occason of La Condition
Postmoderne, however, was a commsson to produce a report
on the state of 'contemporary knowledge` for the unversty
councl of the government of Quebec, where the natonalst
partyofRencIevesquehadi ustcometopower.
Ior Iyotard, the arrval of postmodernty was lnked to the
2U
What is Post-Modernism?, London 1986, pp. 44-47.
2l
What is Post-Modernism?, p. 43.
22
'The Unconscious as Mise-en-Scene', in Michael Benamou and Charles Caramello
( eds), Performance in Postmodern Culture, Madison 1977, p. 95. Hassan gave the
key-note address at this conference. For the intellectual contact between the two at
this time, see La Condition Postmoderne, notes 1, 121, 1 88, and The Postmodern
Turn, pp. 134, 162-1 64.
24
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
emergenceof apost-ndustralsocety - theorzedbyDanelell
andAlan]ourane - nwhchknowledgehadbecometheman
economc force of producton n a llow by-passng natonal
states,yetatthesametmehadlosttstradtonallegtmatons.
Ior f socety was now best conceved, nether as an organc
whole nor as a dualstcheld ofconllct ' Iarsons or Marx , but
as a web of lngustc communcatons, language tself - 'the
whole socal bond` - was composedofamultplctyofdfferent
games, whose rules were ncommensurable, and nter-relatons
agonstc. Inthese condtons, scence became i ustone language
game among others. t could no longer clam the mperal
prvlege over other forms of knowledge to whch t had
pretended n modern tmes. In fact, ts ttle to superorty as
denotatve truth over narratve styles of customary knowledge
concealed the bass of ts own legtmaton, whch classcally
rested on twoformsofgrandnarratvetself. ]he hrst ofthese,
dervedfrom the IrenchRevoluton, told a tale ofhumantyas
the heroc agent of ts own lberaton through the advance of
knowledge, the second, descendng from Cerman Idealsm, a
tale of sprt as the progressve unfoldng of truth. Such were
thegreati ustfyngmythsofmodernty.
]he dehnngtrat of the postmodern condton, by contrast,
s the loss of credblty ofthese meta-narratves. Ior Iyotard,
they have been undone by the mmanent development of the
scences themselves. onthe onehand,byapluralzaton oftypes
of argument, wththe prolferaton of paradox andparalogsm
- antcpated wthnphlosophybyetzsche,Vttgensten and
Ievnas, and ontheotherhand, by atechnhcatonofproof, n
whch costly apparatuses, commanded by captal or the statc,
reduce 'truth` to 'performatvty`. Scencentheservceofpow
hnds a new legtmatonn efhcency. ut the genunepramat
ofpostmodern scence les not n the pursut ofthe performativc,
but n the producton of the paralogstc - n mcro-physcs,
fractals, dscoveres of chaos, 'theorzng ts own evoluton as
dscontnuous,catastrophc,nonrecthableandparadoxcal` .!f
thedream ofconsensuss a relcofnostalgaforemancpaton,
23 La Condition Postmoderne. Rapport sur le Savoir, Paris 1979, p. 97. English
translation: The Postmodern Condition, Minneapolis 1984, p. 60.
25
narratves as such donot dsappear, but become mnature and
compettve. 'the lttlenarratveremansthe quntessentalform
of maginatve nventon`.' Its socal analogue, on whch The
Postmodern Condition ends,sthetrend towards thetemporary
contract n every area of human exstence. occupatonal,
emotonal, sexual, poltcal - tes more economcal, flexble,
creatve than the bonds of modernty. Ifths form s favoured
by the 'system` , t s not entrely subiect to t. Ve should be
happy t s modest andmxed,Iyotard concluded, because any
pure alternatve to the system would fatally come to resemble
whattsoughttooppose.
At the turn of theseventes,lassan`s essays - essentally on
lterature - hadstlltobe collected,]encks`swrtngwaslmted
to archtecture. In ttle and topc, The Postmodern Condition
was thehrst book to treatpostmodernty as a generalchangeof
human crcumstance. ]he vantage-pont of the phlosopher
assured t a wder echo, across audences, than any prevous
nterventon. t remans to ths day perhaps the most wdely
cted work onthe subiect. uttaken n solaton - as t usually
s - the book s a msleadng gude to Iyotard`s dstnctve
ntellectual poston. Ior The Postmodern Condition, wrtten as
an ofhcal commsson, s conhned essentally to the epstemo-
logcal fate of the natural scences - about whch, as Iyotard
later confessed, hsknowledgewas less than lmted.'`Vhathe
readntothemwasa cogntvepluralsm, basedonthenoton-
fresh to Callc audences, f long staled to Anglo-Saxon - of
dfferent, ncommensurable language-games. ]he ncoherence
of Vttgensten`s orgnal concepton, often noted, was only
compounded by Iyotard`s clam that such games were both
autarchc and agonstc, as f there could be conllct between
what has no common measure. ]he subsequentnlluenceofthe
book, n ths sense, was n nverse relaton to ts ntellectual
nterest, as t became the nspraton ofa street-level relatvsm
24 La Condition Postmoderne, p. 98; The Postmodern Condition, p. 60.
25 'I made up stories, I referred to a quantity of books I'd never read, apparently it
impressed people, it's all a bit of parody . . . It's simply the worst of my books,
they're almost all bad, but that one's the worst': Lotta Poetica, Third Series, Vol 1 ,
No 1 , January 1987, p. 8 2- an interview of more general biographical interest.
26
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
that oftenpasses- nthe eyes offrends andfoes alke - for the
hallmarkofpostmodernsm.
VhattheostensblyscenthcframeworkofIyotard's 'report
on knowledge' left out of vew was ether the arts or poltcs.
]he curosty of the book lay n the fact these were hs two
prncpal passons as a phlosopher. A mltant n the far-left
group Socialisme ou Barbarie for a decade ' I95+-6+} durng
whch he was an outstandngly lucd commentator on the
Algeran Var, Iyotard remaned actve n ts splt-off Pouvoir
Ouvrier for anothertwo years. reakngwthths groupwhen
hebecameconvncedtheproletaratwasnolongerarevoluton-
ary subiect capable of challengng captalsm, he was actve n
theunversty ferment at anterre n I968andstllrenterpret-
ng Marx for contemporary rebels aslate as I969. utwththe
ebb of nsurgency in Irance, Iyotard`s deas shfted. ls hrst
maiorphlosophcal work, Discours, Figure ' I97I} , advanced a
hgural renderng of Ireudan drves, n opposton to Iacan`s
lngustc account ofthe unconscous, as the bass for a theory
ofart,llustrated bypoems andpantngs.
y the tme of Derive c partir de Marx et Freud ' I 97J} , he
had arrved at a more drastc poltcal energetcs. 'Reason`, he
declared, 's already n power n kaptal. Ve do not want to
destroy kaptal because t s not ratonal, but because t s.
Reason and power are all one`. ]here was 'nothng n kaptal-
sm, nodalectcthatwll leadtots supersesson, ts overcomng
n socalsm. socalsm, t s now plan to all, s dentcal to
kaptalsm.Allcrtque,farfrom surpassng,merelyconsoldates
t.` Vhat alone could destroy captalsm was the world-wde
'drft of desre` among the young, away from lbdnal nvest-
ment n the system, to styles of conduct 'whose sole d

affectve ntensty and the multplcaton of lbdnal
]he role ofadvanced artsts- once poi az, Iutursm or
+
Russa, today Rothko, Cage or Cunnngham m Amerca - was
to blow up the obstacles to the unleashng of ths desre by
commttng theformsofestablshedrealtyto theflames.Artn
thssenselay beneath allnsurgentpoltcs. 'Aesthetcs has been
for the poltcal man I was ' and renan: not an alb, a
26
Derive a partir de Marx et Freud, Paris 1973, pp. 12-13, 1 6-18.
27
comfortable retreat, but the fault and hssure todescend tothe
subsol of the poltcal scene, a vast grotto from whch ts
undersdecanbe seenupsde-downorturnednsde-out`.
Vth Economie Libidinale ' I97+ , Iyotard went a step
further. o crtque of Marx, by such naifs as Castorads or
audrllard,nthenameofapouscultofcreatvtyornostalgc
myth of symbolc exchange, was of any aval. ]o unmask 'the
desre named Marx`, a complete transcrpton was needed of
poltcalntolbdnaleconomy,thatwouldnotshrnkfromthe
truth that explotaton tself was typcally lved - even by the
early ndustral workers - as erotc enioyment. masochstc or
hystercal delectaton n the destructon of physcal health n
mnes and factores, or dsntegraton of personal dentty n
anonymous slums. Captal was desired by those t domnated,
then as now. Revolt aganst t came only whenthe pleasures t
yelded became 'untenable`, and there was an abrupt shft to
new outlets. ut these had nothng to do wth the tradtonal
sanctmonesoftheIeft.]ustastherewasnoalenatonnvolved
npopularnvestmentn captal, sondsnvestment'theresno
lbdnal dgnty, norlbdnallberty,nor lbdnal fraternty` -
i ustthequestfornewaffectveintenstes.'
]he largerbackgroundtoIyotard`stranstfrom arevoluton-
ary socalsm towards a nhlst hedonsm lay, of course, nthe
evoluton ofthe Ifth Republc tself. ]he Caullst consensus of
the early sxtes had convnced hm that the workng class was
now essentally ntegrated nto captalsm. ]he ferment of the
late sxtes gave hm hope that generaton rather than class -
youth across the world - mght be the harbnger of revolt. ]he
euphorc wave ofconsumersmthat washed over the country n
the early and md-seventes then led to 'wdespread theorza
tons of captalsm as a stream-lned machnery of desre. y
I976,however,the Socalst and Communst Iartcs had agreed
on a Common Irogramme, and looked ncreasngly lkely to
wn the next legslatve electons. ]he prospect of the ICI n
government for the hrst tme snce the onset of the Cold Var
sowed panc n respectable opnon, promptng a volent deo-
27 Derive a partir de Marx et Freud, p. 20.
28 Economie Libidinale, Paris 1974, pp. 136-138.
28
CRYSTALLIZATI ON
logcalcounter-offensve. ]he resultwasthe rocketngto prom
nence of the Nouveaux Philosophes, a group of former
soixante-huitard publcsts, patronzed by the meda and the
Ilysce.
Inthevcsstudes ofIyotard` s poltcaltrai ectory, there had
always been one constant. Socialisme ou Barbarie was vehe
mently ant-communst from the hrst, and whatever hs other
changes of mood or convcton, ths remaned an neradcable
element n hs outlook. In I97+ he conhded to startled friends
n Amerca that hs Iresdental choce was Cscard, snce
Mtterrand reled on Communstsupport. As the I978 electons
approached, wth the danger of actual ICI partcpaton n
government, he therefore could not but feel ambvalence
towards the Nouveaux Philosophes. n the one hand, their
furousattacksoncommunsmweresalutary, onthe other, they
were vsblya lght-weght cotere caught up na compromsng
embrace wth ofhcal power. Iyotard`s nterventon n the pre
electoral debates, the sardonc dalogue Instructions Pai'ennes
' I977 , accordngly both defended and derded them. It was
here that he hrst formulated the dea of meta-narratrves that
wastohguresopromnentlynThe Postmodern Condition, and
made ts realtargetcrystal-clear. ]ustone 'masternarratve`lay
at theorgnoftheterm. Marxsm. Iortunately, ts ascendancy
was now at last eroded by the nnumerable lttle tdngs from
the Culag. It was true that n the Vest there exsted a grand
narratve of captal too, but t was preferable to that of the
Iarty, snce t was 'godless` - 'captalsm has no respect for
any one story`, for 'ts narratve s about everything and
nothng`-
In the same year as ths poltcal manfesto, Iyotard set
an aesthetc canon. Les Transformateurs Duchamp prcscn
thecreatoroftheLarge Glass and Given asthe crtcal artst
the non-somorphc, of ncongruences and ncommensurabil
tes. Defendng once agan hs account ofthejouissance ofthe
earlyndustralproletaratntsgrndnglot,Iyotardcontended.
29 Instructions Pai'ennes, Paris 1 977, p. 55. Lyotard's frst use of the terms 'grand
narrative' and 'meta-narrative' identifes their referent without further ado as
Marxism: pp. 22-23.
29
'If you descrbe the workers` fate exclusvely n terms of
alenaton, explotaton and poverty, you present them as vc
tms who only suffered passvely the whole process and who
only acquredclamsforlaterreparatons ' socalsm. You mss
the essental,whchsn`tthegrowthofthe forces ofproducton
at any prce, nor even the death of many workers, as Marx
often says wtha cyncsm adorned wthDarwnsm. You mss
the energy that later spread through the arts and scences, the
i ublation and the pan of dscoverng that you can hold out
'lve, work, thnk, be affected n a place where t had been
i udged senseless to do so. Indfferent to sense, hardness. ` It was
ths hardness, a 'mechancal ascetcsm` , ofwhch Duchamp`s
sexualengmastookareadng. ']he Glass sthe delay" ofthe
nude, Given ts advance. It`s too soon to see the woman layng
herself bare on the Glass, and t`s too late on the stage of the
Given. ]he performer s a complex transformer, a battery of
metamorphoss machnes. ]here sno art, becausethere are no
obi ects. ]here are only transformatons, redstrbutons of
energy.]heworldsamultplctyofapparatusesthattransform
untsofenergyntooneother. ` `
]hemmedate hnterland behnd The Postmodern Condition
was thus much more ntensely charged than the document
composed for the Qucbecos state tself. ]he 'report onknowl-
edge` leftthetwoquestons ofmost abdngconcerntoIyotard
suspended. Vhatwerethemplcatonsofpostmoderntyforart
and poltcs: Iyotard was quckly forced to reply to the hrst,
wherehefoundhmselfnanawkwardposton. Vhenhewrote
The Postmodern Condition hewasquteunawareofthedeploy-
ment ofthe term narchtecture, perhaps the onlyart onwhch
he had never wrtten,wth an aesthetc meanng antthetcal to
everythng that he valued. ]hs gnorance could not last long.
y I982 he was apprsed of ]encks`s constructon of the
postmodern, and ts wdespread recepton n orth Amerca.
ls reacton was acrd. Such postmodernsm was a surrep
ttous restoraton of a degraded realsm once patronzed by
azsm and Stalnsm andnowrecycledas acyncaleclectcsm
30 Les Transformateurs Duchamp, Paris 1977, pp. 23, 39-40.
30
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
by
cont
emporary captal. everythng the avant-gardes had
fou
ghtaganst.`'
Vhat ths slackenng of aesthetc tenson promsed was not
iust the end of expermentaton, but a cancellaton of the
mpetus of modern art as such, whose drve had always come
from the gap between the concevable and the presentable, that
Kant dehned as the sublme as dstnct from the merely beaut-
ful. Vhat then could authentc postmodern art be: Ireempted
by a usage he execrated, Iyotard`s answer was lame. ]he
postmodern dd not come afterthe modern, but was a moton
ofnternalrenewalwthntfromthehrst- thatcurrentwhose
response to the shatterng of the real was the opposte of
nostalga for ts unty. rather a i ublant acceptance of the
freedom of nventon t released. ut ths was no luxurance.
]he avant-garde art Iyotard sngled out for approval a year
later was Mnmalsm - the sublme as prvaton. Vhat buoyed
theartmarket, bycontrast, wasthektsch celebrated by]encks.
'amalgamaton, ornamentaton, pastche- flatterng the taste"
ofapublcthatcanhavenotaste`.`'
IfIyotard` sproblemntheorzngapostmodernartlaynthe
turn of aesthetc trends awayfromthe drecton he had always
champoned - forcng hm to declare artstc postmodernty a
perennal prncple, rather than perodc category, n patent
contradcton of hs account of scenthc postmodernty as a
stage of cogntve development - hs dfhculty n constructng a
postmodern poltcs became n due course analogous. lere the
dscomhture came from the course of hstory tself. In The
Postmodern Condition Iyotard had announced the eclpse oI
all grand narratves. ]he one whose death he above all sougbl
tocertfywas, ofcourse, classcal socalsm. Insubsequentte
he would extend the lst of grand narratves that were
defunct. Chrstan redempton, Inlghtenment progress,

an sprt, Romantc unty, az racsm, Keynesan equlbrum.
31 'Reponse a Ia question: qu'est-ce que le postmoderne?', in Le Postmoderne
explique aux enfants, Paris 1 986, pp. 29-33. English translation, 'Answering the
Question: What is Postmoderism?', appended to The Postmodern Condition,
pp. 73-76.
32 'Le sublime et l'avant-garde' (Berlin lecture 1 983 ), in L'Inhumain. Causeries sur
le Temps, Paris 1988, p. 1 1 7.
31
ut the commandng referent always remaned communsm.
Vhat, then, ofcaptalsm: At thetme Iyotard waswrtng, at
thetal-end oftheCarterera,theVest- thenenterng a severe
recesson - was n farfrom bosterous deologcal mood. lence
he could suggest wth at any rate a semblance of plausblty
thatcontemporarycaptalsm was valdated by no more thana
performance prncple, whch was a mere shadow of real
legtmaton.
Vth the sharp change of coni uncture n the eghtes - the
euphora ofthe Reagan boom, and the trumphant deologcal
offensve ofthe Rght, culmnatng nthecollapse ofthe Sovet
bloc at the end ofthe decade - thspostonlost all credblty.
Iar from grand narratves havng dsappeared, t looked as f
forthehrsttmenhstorytheworldwasfallng underthesway
ofthe most grandose ofall - a sngle, unversalstory oflberty
and prosperty, the global vctory of the market. low was
Iyotardtoadiusttothsuncovenanted development:lsntal
reacton was to nsstthat captalsm, though t mght seem to
represent a unversalhnalty ofhstory, nfactdestroyed any -
snce t emboded no hgher values than mere factual securty.
' Captal has no need for legtmaton, t prescrbes nothng, n
the strct sense of an oblgaton, t does not have to post any
normatve rule. It s present everywhere, butas necessty rather
than hnalty`. At best perhaps, t concealed a quas-norm -
'savng tme`. but could that really be regarded as a unversal
end:``
]hs was an uncharacterstcally weak note to strke. y the
end ofthe nnetes, Iyotard had found a stronger ext from hs
dfhculty. Captalsm, he had started to argue muchearler,was
not to be understood prmarly as a soco-economc phenom
enonatall. 'Captalsm s, moreproperly, ahgure.Asa system,
captalsm hasastsheatsourcenotthe labourforcebutenergy
tself, physcs 'the system s not solated . As hgure, captalsm
derves ts force from the Idea of nhnty. It can appear n
human experence asthe desre formoney,the desre forpower,
or the desre for novelty. All ths can seem very ugly, very
33 'Memorandum sur Ia legitimite' ( 1984), in Le Postmoderne explique aux enfants,
p. 94.
32
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
dsquetng. utthese desres arethe anthropologcaltranslaton
ofsomethng thatsontologcallythe nstantaton" ofnhnty
n the wll. ]hs nstantaton" does not take place accordng
to socal class. Socal classes are not pertnent ontologcal
categores`.` ]he substtuton of hstory by ontology was a
way-staton, however. wthn a few years, Iyotard had moved
toastro-physcs.
]hetrumphofcaptalsm overrvalsystems, he now argued,
wastheoutcomeofaprocessofnaturalselectonthatpre-dated
human lfe tself. In the ncommensurable vastness of the
cosmos, where all bodes are subiect to entropy, an aborgnal
chance - a 'contngentconstellatonofenergyforms` - gaverse
n one tny planet to rudmentary lvng systems. ecause
external energy was lmted, these had to compete wth each
other, na perpetuallyfortutouspath ofevoluton. Iventually,
after mllons of years, a human speces emerged capable of
words and tools, then 'varous mprobable forms of human
aggregaton arose, and they were selected accordng to ther
ablty to dscover, capture and save sources of encrgy`. After
further mllenna, punctuated by the neolthc and ndustral
revolutons, 'systems called lberal democraces` proved them-
selves bestatthstask, trouncngcommunstor slamstcompet-
tors, and moderatng ecologcal dangers. 'othng seemed able
to stop the development of ths system except the neluctable
extnctonofthesun. uttomeetthschallenge,thesystem was
alreadydevelopngtheprosthesesthatwouldallowtto survve
after solar sources of energy were wped out`.All contempor-
ary scenthc research was ultmately workng towards the
exodus, four bllon years hence, of a transformed human
specesfromtheearth.
-
Vhen hrst adumbratng ths vson, Iyotard termed t a
dccor`.` Resort to the language of scenography sde-step

any hnt of narratve - f at the cost of unwttngly suggesting
the stylzaton of the postmodern otherwse most dslked. ut
34 'Appendice svelte a Ia question postmodere' ( 1982), in Tombeau de l'intellectuel
et autres papiers, Paris 1984, p. 80.
35 Moralites Postmodernes, Paris 1993, pp. 80-86.
36 'Billet pour un nouveau decor' ( 1985), in Le Postmoderne explique aux enfants,
pp. 131-134.
33
THE ORI GINS OF POSTMODERNI TY
when completed, he presented tas 'the unavowed dream the
postmodern world dreams about tself` - 'a postmodern fable` .
ut, henssts, 'thefablesrealstcbecause trecounts the story
of a force whch makes, unmakes and remakes realty`. Vhat
the fable depcts s a conllct between two energy processes.
' neleadstothedestructon ofallsystems, all bodes,lvngor
not,onourplanetandthe solarsystem. utwthn thsprocess
ofentropy, whchs nccessary and contnuous, another process
that s contngent and dscontnuous, at least for a long tme,
acts n a contrary sense by ncreasng dfferentaton of ts
systems. ]hs movement cannot halt the hrst 'unless t could
hnd a means to refuel the sun , but t can escape from
catastrophe by abandonng ts cosmc habtat`. ]he ultmate
motor of captalsm s thus not thrst for proht, or any human
desre. t s rather development as neguentropy. ' Development
s not an nventon of human bengs. luman bengs are an
nventonofdevelopment` .`
Vhysthsnota - quntessentallymodern - grandnarratve:
ecause, Iyotard mantans, t s a storywthouthstorcty or
hope. ]hefablespostmodern because 't has nohnaltyn any
horzon ofemancpaton`. luman bengs, aswtnessesofdevel
opment, may settherfaces aganst a process ofwhchthey are
vehcles. 'uteventhercrtquesofdevelopment, oftsnequal-
ty, ts rregularty, ts fatalty, ts nhumanty, are expressons
ofdevelopmentandcontrbutetot.` Unversalenergetcsleaves
no space for pathos - ostensbly. Yet Iyotard also freely
descrbes hs story as a 'tragedy of energy` whch 'lke Oedipus
Rex ends badly`, yet also 'lke Oedipus at Colonnus allows an
ultmateremsson` . `
]he ntellectual fraglty ofthslateconstructonhardlyneeds
emphass. othng n Iyotard`s orgnal account of meta
narratves conhned them to the dea of emancpaton - whch
was only one of the two modern dscourses of legtmaton he
sought to trace. ]he postmodern fable would stll be a grand
narratve, even were t exempt from the theme. ut n fact, of
course, t s not. Vhat else would escape to the stars be than
37 'Une fable postmoderne', in Moralites Postmodernes, pp. 86-87.
38 'Une fable postmodere', pp. 91-93, 87.
34
^
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
emancpatonfromthe boundsofadyngearth:Morepontedly
stll, n the other - nterchangeable - regster of Iyotard`s
narratve, captalsm notorously speaks the language of eman
cpaton more contnually and conhdently than ever before.
Ilsewhere, Iyotard s forced to acknowledge ths. Indeed, he
admts. 'Imancpaton s no longer the task of ganng and
mposng lberty from the outsde` - rather t s 'an deal that
the system tselfendeavours to actualze n most ofthe areas t
covers, such as work, taxaton, marketplace, famly, sex, race,
school, culture, communcaton` . bstacles andresstances only
encourage t to become more open and complex, promotng
spontaneousundertakngs - and 'thatstangbleemancpaton` .
Ifthe i ob of the crtc s stll to denounce the shortcomngs of
the system, 'such crtques, whatever form they take, areneeded
by the system for dschargng the task of emancpaton more
effectvely`.`
]hepostmodern condton, announced as thedeathofgrand
narratve,thusendswthts all butmmortalresurrectonnthe
allegory of development. ]he logc ofths strange dcnouement
s nscrbed n Iyotard`s poltcal traiectory. Irom the seventes
onwards, so long as communsm exsted as an alternatve to
captalsm, the latter was a lesser evl - he could even sardon
cally celebrate t as, by contrast, a pleasurable order. nce the
Sovet bloc had dsntegrated, the hegemony of captal became
less palatable. Its deologcaltrumph appeared tovndcatei ust
the knd of legtmatng narratve whose obtuary Iyotard had
set outto wrte. Rather than confrontng thenewrealty on a
poltcal plane, hs soluton was a metaphyscal sublmaton of
t. Sutably proiected nto nter-galactc space, hs orgnal
energetcs could putcaptalsm nto perspectveasnomoreUa
aneddy ofa larger cosmc adventure. ]he btter-sweetcnnso:.
tonthsalteratonof scalemghtoffer aformer mltant s clca
]he 'postmodern fable` dd not spell any hnal reconclaton
wth captal. n the contrary, Iyotard now recovered accents
of opposton long muted n hs work. a denuncaton of
global nequalty and cultural lobotomy, and scorn for socal
democratc reformsm,recallng hs revolutonary past. ut the
39 'Mur, golfe, systeme' ( 1990) , in Moralites Postmodernes, pp. 67-68.
35
only resstances tothe system that remaned were nward. the
reserve ofthe artst, the ndetermnacy ofchldhood, the slence
of thc soul. Cone was the 'i ublaton` of the ntal breakage
of representaton by the postmodern, an nvncble malase
now dehned the tone of the tme. ]he postmodern was
'melancholy` . '
Frankfurt - Munich
The Postmodern Condition was publshed | the autumn of
I979. Ixactly a year later, ]irgen labermas delvered hs
addressModernity - an Incomplete Project nIrankfurt, onthe
occason of hs award of the Adorno prze by the cty fathers.
]he lecture occupes a pecular place n the dscourse of
postmodernty. Its substance touches only to a lmted degree
on the postmodern, yet the effect was to hghlght t as a
henceforth standard referent. ]hs paradoxcal outcome was
largely, of course, due to labermas's standng n the Anglo-
Saxonworld aspremerIuropean phlosopherofthe age. utt
was also afunctonofthecrtcalstanceofhsnterventon.Ior
the hrst tme snce the take-offofthe dea ofpostmodernity n
the late seventes, t receved abrasve treatment. If the emerg
ence of anntellectual terrantypcallyrequres anegatvepole
for ts productve tenson, t was labermas who suppled t.
40 See, in particular, 'A l'insu' ( 1 988) , 'Ligne generale' ( 1991) , and 'Intime est Ia
terreur' ( 1993) , in Moralites Postmodernes; and 'Avant-propos: de l'humain'
( 1988) , in L'Inhumain, where Lyotard confesses: 'The inhumanity of the system
now in the process of consolidation, under the name of development (among
others), must not be confused with that, infnitely secret, of which the soul is
hostage. To believe, as I once did, that the frst kind of inhumanity can relay the
second, give it expression, is an error. The effect of the system is rather to consign
what escapes it to oblivion': p. 10. More recently, in 'La Mainmise', Lyotard
reiterates the 'fable of development', but changes register: here it 'anticipates a
contradiction' - for 'the process of development runs counter to the human
design of emancipation', although it claims to be at one with it. To the question
'Is there any instance within us that asks to be emancipated from this supposed
emancipation?' - Lyotard's answer is the 'residue' bequeathed by 'immemorial
childhood' to the 'gesture of witness' in the work of art: Un Trait d'Union, Paris
1993, p. 9.
41 Moralites Postmodernes, pp. 93-94.
36

I
CRYSTALLIZATI ON
lowever, a msunderstandng has tradtonally been attached
to hs text. Vdely read as a response to Iyotard' s work,
because of the proxmty of dates, n fact t was probably
wrttenngnoranceofthelatter.labermaswasreactngrather
to the \ence ennale exhbton of 198O, the show-case for
]encks`s verson of postmodernsm' - i ust what Iyotard, for
hs part, had been unaware of when producng hs own. An
ronc chasse-croise of deas stood at the orgn of these
exchanges.
labermas beganbyacknowledgngthatthesprt ofaesthetc
modernty, wthts new sense oftme as a present chargedwth
a herocfuture, bornnthe epoch of audelare and reachng a
clmax n Dada, had vsbly waned, the avant-gardes had aged.
]hedea ofpostmoderntyowedtspower tothsncontestable
change.Iromt, however,neo-conservatvetheorstslkeDanel
ell had drawna perverseconcluson. ]he antnoman logc of
modernst culture, they argued, had come to permeate the
texture of captalst socety, weakenng ts moral hbre and
undermnng ts work dscplne wth a cult of unrestraned
subiectvty, atthe very momentthat thsculture had ceased to
be a source of creatve art. ]he result threatened to be a
hedonstc melt-down of a once honourable socal order, that
couldonlybecheckedbyarevvalofrelgousfath - naworld
profaned,areturnofthesacred.
]hs, labermas observed, was to blameaesthetcmodernsm
forwhatwasalltooobvouslythecommercallogcofcaptalst
modernzatontself. 1he real aporas ofculturalmodernty lay
elsewhere. ]he Inlightenment proiect of modernty had two
strands. newasthe dfferentatonforthehrsttmeofscence,
moralty and art - no longer fused n a revealed relgon-
autonomous value-spheres, each governed by ts own norms
truth, i ustce, beauty. ]he other was the releaseofthe potenta!

42 'Die Moderne - ein unvollendetes Projekt', Kleine politische Schriften (I-IV),
Frankfurt 1981, p. 444. This German address was signifcantly longer and sharper
in tone than the English version delivered by Habermas as a James Lecture in New
York the following year, published in New German Critique, Winter 1981,
pp. 3-15. Its opening remarks ask the blunt question: 'Is the moder as out-dated
as the postmoderns would have it? Or is the postmoder itself, proclaimed from so
many sides, merely phony [sic] ?' .
37
ofthesenewlylberateddomansntothesubi ectvefluxofdaly
lfe, nteractng to enrcht. ]hs was the programme that had
gone astray. Iornstead ofenteringntothecommonresources
ofeverydaycommuncaton,eachspherehadtendedto develop
nto an esoterc specalsm, closed to the world of ordnary
meanngs. Inthe courseofthe nneteenth century artbecame a
crtcal enclave ncreasngly alenated from socety, even fetsh-
zng ts own dstance from t. In the early twenteth century,
revolutonary avant-gardes lke surrealsm had attempted to
demolshthe resultantdvsonbetweenartandlfe by spectacu
lar acts of aesthetc wll. ut ther gestures were futle. no
emancpaton flowed from destructon of forms or desublma-
tonofmeanngs - norcouldlfehaveeverbeentranshgured by
the absorptonofart alone.]hatrequredaconcurrentrecovery
of the resources of scence and moralty too, and the nterplay
ofallthreetoanmatethelfe-world.
]he proiect of modernty had yet to be realzed. ut the
outrghtattempttonegatet - acounselofdespar - had faled.
]he autonomy ofthevalue-spheres could not be rescnded, on
panofregresson.]heneedwasstlltoreappropratetheexpert
cultures each had produced nto the language of common
experence. Iorths, however, theremust be barrersto protect
the spontanety ofthe lfe-world from the ncursons ofmarket
forces and of bureaucratc admnstraton. ut, labermas
gloomly conceded, 'the chances for ths today are not very
good. More or less everywhere n the entre Vestern world a
clmate has developed that furthers currents crtcal ofcultural
modernsm`.` o less than t!ree dstnct brands of conserva-
tsmwerenowonoffer.]heant-modernsmof'young`conserv
atves appealed to archac, donysac powers aganst all
43 To his German listeners, Habermas explained that a condition of 'a differentiated
recoupling of modern culture with everyday praxis' was not just 'the ability of the
life-world to develop institutions capable of limiting the internal dynamics of the
economic and administrative action-systems' but 'also the guiding of social modern
ization along other, non-capitalist paths' - 'wenn auch die gesellschaftliche Moder
nisierung in andere nichtkapitalistische Bahnen gelenkt wurden kann'. Speaking to
his American audience, Habermas discreetly dropped this clause, leaving only its
anodyne pendant. Compare 'Die Moderne - ein unvollendetes Projekt', p. 462 with
'Modernity - an Incomplete Project', p. 13.
38
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
ratonalzaton, natradtonrunnngfrom atallet oIoucault.
]hepre-modernsm of 'old` conservatves called for a substan-
tve cosmologcal ethcs of quas-arstotelan stamp, along
lnes ntmated by Ieo Strauss. ]he postmodernsm of 'neo
conservatves` welcomed the rehcaton of separate value-
spheresnto closed domans of expertse armoured aganstany
demands ofthe lfe-world, wthconceptons ofscenceclose to
those ofthe earlyVttgensten, ofpoltcs borrowed from Carl
Schmtt, of art aknto those of Cottfred enn. In Cermany, a
lurkng blend of ant- and premodernsm haunted the counter
culture, whle an omnous allance ofpre- and post-modernsm
wastakngshapenthepoltcalestablshment.
labermas`s argument, compact n form, was nevertheless a
curous constructon. ls dehnton of modernty, uncrtcally
adopted from Veber, essentally reduced t to mere formal
dfferentatonofvalue-spheres- to whchhethensubioned, as
an Inlghtenment aspraton, ther reconhguraton as nter
communcatng resources n the lfe-world, an dea foregn to
Veber and hard to detect n the Auf klarung 'as dstnct from
legel tself. Vhatsclear enough, however, sthatthe'proiect`
of modernty as he sketched t s a contradctory amalgam of
twoopposteprncples. specalzaton andpopularzaton. low
was a synthess of the two at any stage to be realzed: So
dehned,couldtheproiecteverbecompleted:utfnths sense
t looks less unhnshed than unfeasble, the reason les n
labermas`ssocaltheoryasawhole.
Ior the tensons of aesthetc modernty reproduce n mna-
ture the strans n the structure of hs account of captalst
socetes t large. n the one hand, these are governed
'systems` of mpersonal coordnaton, medated by the steen
mechansmsofmoneyand power,whch cannotbe recovered
any collectve agency, on pan of regressve 1e1eet
of separate nsttutonal orders - market, admnstraton, lav,
etc. n the other hand, the 'lfe-world` that s ntegrated by
nter-subi ectve norms, n whch communcatve rather than
nstrumental acton prevals, needs to be protected from 'colo
nzaton` by the systems - wthout, however, encroachng on
them. Vhat ths dualsm rules out s any form of pop
ular soveregnty, n ether a tradtonal or radcal sense. ]he
39
self-governmentoffreely assocatedproducerssofftheagenda.
Vhatsleftsthevelletyofanmpossblereconclatonoftwo
unequal domans. Ior the labermas of The Theory of Com
municative Action the'publcsphere`would be thedemocratc
ste ofanannealngbetweenthetwo - yetone whose structural
declne he traced long ago. In Modernity - an Incomplete
Project, there sno menton oft. utthas tsecho nhssngle
postve example ofwhat a reappropraton of art n everyday
exstence mght look lke. the portrayal of young workers n
pre-war erln dscussng the Iergamon altar n Ieter Vess`s
Aesthetics of Resistance, remnscent of the 'plebean` equva
lents ofthe bourgeos publc sphere evoked ntheprefacetohs
famous study of the latter. ut, of course, ths s not only a
hctvellustraton.]he aesthetc releasedsofclasscalantquty,
not modernty, set n a tme, at that, before the avant-gardes
hadaged.
]hemal c propos canbe taken as anndexoftheunderlyng
slppage n labermas`s argument. ]here s a basc dsi uncture
between the phenomenon t starts by regsterng - the apparent
declne of aesthetc modernsm - and the theme t goes on to
develop- the overspecalzaton ofvalue-spheres. ]he dynamc
of scence has clearly not been affected by the latter. Vhy
should art be: labermas attempts no answer. nfact, does not
even pose the queston. ]he result s a yawnng gap between
problem and soluton. ]he wanng ofexpermental vtalty les
at one end ofthe address, thereanmatonofthelfe-world at
theother,andtheresvrtually noreasonedconnexonbetween
them. ]he msconstructon has ts dsplaced symptom n the
fancful taxonomy wth whch t ends. Vhatever the crtcsms
to be made ofthe ntellectual descentfrom atalle to Ioucault
'there aremany , tcannot byanystretchofthe magnaton be
descrbed as 'conservatve` . \ce-versa, however neo-conservatve
the progeny of Vttgensten, Schmtt or enn, not to speak of
thnkers lke ell, to castgatethem asvehcles of 'postmodern
sm` s pecularly aberrant. they have typcally been among ts
hercest crtcs. ]oafhxthelabelto suchfoeswastantamountto
obnublatngthepostmodernaltogether.
]hs was not to be labermas`s last word on the subiect,
however. Iess notced, but more substantal was thelecturehe
40
1.
l
.
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
delvered on'Modernand IostmodernArchtecture` nMunch
a year later. lere labermas engaged wth the real stronghold
ofpostmodernaesthetctheory, dsplaynganmpressveknowl
edge andpassonabouthssubiect. lestarted byobservng that
the modern movement n archtecture - the only unfyng style
snceneo-classcsm- sprang from the sprt ofthe avant-garde,
yet had succeeded n creatng a classc tradton true to the
nspraton of occdental ratonalsm. ]oday, t was under
wdespread attack for the monstrous urban blght of so many
post-war ctes. ut 's the real face of modern archtecture
revealed n these atroctes, or are they dstortons of ts true
sprt` :]o answer ths queston, twas necessary to look back
attheorgnsofthemovement.
Inthenneteenthcentury, the ndustralrevolutonhadposed
three unprecedented challenges to the art of archtecture. It
requred the desgn of new knds of buldngs - both cultural
'lbrares, schools, opera-houses and economc ' ralway
statons, department stores, warehouses, workers` housng , t
afforded new technques and materals 'ron, steel, concrete,
glass , andtmposed new socalmperatves 'marketpressures,
admnstratve plans , n a 'captalst moblzaton of all urban
lvng condtons`.` ]hese demands overwhelmed the archtec
ture ofthe tme, whch faled to produce any coherentresponse
tothem, dsntegratng nstead nto eclectc hstorcsm or grm
utlty. Reactng to ths falure n the early twenteth century,
the modern movement overcame the stylstc chaos and fact
tous symbolsm of late \ctoran archtecture, and set out to
transform the totalty ofthe bult envronment, from the most
monumental and expressve edhces to the smallest and
practcal.

In dong so, t met the hrst two challenges of the indust ; .:

revoluton trumphantly, wth extraordnary formal creaty.
uttwasnever able to master thethrd.Archtecturalmodern
sm, vrtually from the start, vastly overestmated ts abltyto
'Moderne und postmoderne Architektur', collected in Die Neue Unubersicht
lichkeit, Frankfurt 1985, p. 15; English translation in The New Conservatism,
Cambridge, Mass. 1989, p. 8.
'Moderne und postmoderne Architektur', p. 1 8.
41
re-shape the urban envronment. a mscalculaton famously
expressed nthe hubrsofthe early,utopanIeCorbuser.After
the war, ths stran of navetc rendered t helpless before the
pressures of captalst reconstructon, that led to the desolate
ctyscapes for whch t later had to shoulder the blame. At the
end of ths tnerary, lay the backlash of the present scene. a
conservatvereversontoneo-hstorcsm ']erry, a vtalst quest
for communty archtecture ' Ker , and the llamboyant stage-
sets of postmodernsm proper 'lollen or \entur . In all, the
unty of form and functon that had drven the proiect of
modernsmwasnow dssolved.
]hs was certanly a more tellng account of the fate of
aesthetcmodernty,nthe mostsocallysenstveofallthe arts,
than the Irankfurt lecture. ut the Munch address, though
much rcher and more precse, stll posed the same underlyng
problem. Vhat had ultmately caused the downfall n publc
esteemofthemodernmovementnarchtecture:nthesurface,
the answer was clear. ts nablty to resst or outllank the
constrants of post-war money and power. 'the contradctons
ofcaptalst modernzaton`, as labermas atonepontputst.
uthowfarwas archtectural modernsm - wttngly orunwt
tngly - complctwththese mperatves : labermas accords t
some responsblty, for msunderstandng ts own orgnal
dynamc. lstorcally, the roots of modernsm lay n three
responses to cubsm n the held of pure desgn. Russan con-
structvsm,De Stil, andthecrclearoundIe Corbuser. Ixper-
mental form engendered practcal functon, rather than the
other way round. ut as the auhaus acqured domnance, t
forgot ts orgns and msrepresented the new archtecture as
'functonalst`. In the end, ths confuson lent tself all too
readly tocxplotatonby developers and bureaucrats, comms-
sonngandhnancngbuldngsthatwerefunctonaltothem.
ut ths unseeng betrayal of tself, however serous, was not
theefhcent cause ofthe mpasse ofmodernsm. ]hat lay n the
nsuperableconstrants ofts socalenvronment. At hrst glance,
labermas here appearedto bendctngtheruthlessspeculatve
logc ofpost-war captalsm, scatterng brutal ofhce blocks and
46 Ibid., p. 23.
42
CRYSTALLI ZATI ON
`v
ierry-bulthgh-rses across the urbanlandscape. If ths were so,
then a radcal socal reversal could be magned, n whch the
dctates of prohtwere swept away and the urban fabrc healed
.
bythecollectve enablng of an archtecture ofshelter, socabl-
ty, beauty. ]hs, however, s i ust what labermas effectvely
rules out. Iorthe ultmate error ofmodernsm,he explans, was
nots omuch lack ofvgilance towards the market, as too much
trust n the plan. ot the commands of captal, but necesstes
of modernty - the structural dfferentaton of socety, rather
than the pursut ofrentor proht - condemned tto frustraton.
']he utopa of preconceved forms of lfe that had already
nspred the desgns of wen and Iourercouldnot be realzed,
-
notonlybecause ofa hopelessunderestmatonofthe dversty,
complextyand varablty ofmodern socetes, but also because
modernzed soceteswththerfunctonal nterdependences go
beyondthedmensonsoflvngcondtonsthatcouldbegauged
bythemagnatonoftheplanner`.'
lere, n other words, recurs the schema traced by the
-"
Irankfurt address, dervedfromthe sameparalysed dualsm set
up by labermas`s theory of communcaton acton. nvolable
systems and noperatve lfe-worlds. ut there at least the
"
possblty of somerecovery of leeway by thelattersnomnally
kept open. lere, labermas draws the consequences from hs
premses more mplacably. It was noti ustmodernstdreams of
a humanecty that were mpractcable. ]he very dea of a cty

atallscondemnedtoobsolescence bythefunctonalexgences
ofmpersonal coordnaton, thatrenderanyattempt to recreate
`
coherenturbanmeanngfutle. nce, 'thectycouldbearchtcc
turallv desgned and mentally represented as a
habtat`. ut wth ndustralsm the cty became
abstractsystemswhchcouldnolongerbecaptured
nanntellgblepresence`.
Iromthe begnnng,proletaranhousngcouldneverbe
rated nto the metropols, and as tme went on, prolferating

sub-zones of commercal or admnstratve actvty dspersed r
yet further nto an ungraspable, featurelessmaze. ']he graphcs
Ibid., p. 23.
48 Ibid., p. 25.
43
ofcompany trade-marks and neon advertsements demonstrate
that dfferentaton must take place by means other than the
formallanguageofarchtecture`. ]here snoturnngbackfrom
ths fate. 'Urban agglomeratons have outgrownthe old concept
ofthe ctywe stll keep n our hearts. lowever, that s nether
the falure of modern archtecture, nor of any other archtec
ture`.Itswrttenntothe logcofsocal development, beyond
captal or labour, as a requrement of modernty tself. ot
hnancal accumulaton but systemc coordnaton, that cannot
becancelled,rendersurbanspacendecpherable.
lere the pathos of labermas`s later theory, whch smul
taneously reafhrms the deals of the Inlghtenment and denes
them anychance ofrealzaton,hndstspurestexpresson. what
mght be called, nvertng Cramsc`s formula, eudaemonsm of
the ntellgence, defeatsm of the wll. labermas ends by
expressng a guarded sympathy for vernacular currents n
archtecture that encourage popular partcpaton n desgn
proiects, asatrendwherensomeofthempulsesoftheModern
Movement defensvely survve. ut - iust as n the wder
counter-culture - 'nostalga for de-dfferentatedformsofexst
ence bestows on these tendences an ar of ant-modernsm``.
ther tact appeal to a Volksgeist recalls the dre example,
howeverdstnctnmonumentalntenton,ofaz archtecture.
Iflabermasconcedes, wthoutenthusasm, thattheresa good
deal of 'truth` n ths form of opposton, what he does not-
cannot - saysthattheresanyhopent.
]here, n theautumnofI98I, matters stood. ]hrtyyears after
a sense of t was hrst ared by lson, the postmodern had
crystallzed ascommonreferent and competng dscourse. In ts
orgns, the dea wasalways brushed byassocatons beyond the
Vest - Chna, Mexco, ]urkey, even later, behnd lassan or
Iyotard lay Igypt and Algera, and the anomaly of Quebec.
Space was nscrbed n t from the start. Culturally, t ponted
beyondwhat had become ofmodernsm, butnwhatdrecton,
there wasno consensus, only a setofoppostons gong backto
49 Ibid., p. 26.
Ibid., p. 27.
44
[
CRYSTALLIZATI ON
De nis, and n what arts or scences, only dsconnected
nterests and crss-crossng opnons. ]he concdent nterven
tons ofIyotard andlabermasforthe hrsttmesealedthe held
wth the stamp of phlosophcal authorty. ut ther own
contrbutons were each strangelyndecsve. ]heorgnal back-
ground of both thnkers was Marxst, but t s strkng how
little of t they brought to ther accounts of postmodernty.
ether attempted any real hstorcal nterpretaton of the
postmodern, capable ofdetermnng tntme or space. Instead,
they offered more or less lloatng or vacant sgnhers as the
mark of ts appearance. the delegtmaton ofgrand narratves
' dateless for Iyotard, the colonzaton ofthe lfe-world 'when
was t not colonzed: for labermas. Iaradoxcally, a concept
bydehntontemporal lacksperodcweghtnether.
or sthe haze that envelops the term as socal development
dspelled by ts usage as aesthetc category. oth Iyotard and
labermas were deeply attached to the prncples of hgh
modernsm, but far from ths commtment enablng them to
brng postmodernsm nto sharper focus, t seems to have
occluded t. Recolng from unwelcome evdence of what t
mghtmean, Iyotard was reduced to denyng thatt was other
than an nner fold of the modernsm tself. labermas, more
wllng to engage wth the arts n vew, could acknowledge a
passage from the modern to the postmodern, but was scarcely
abletoexplant.etherventuredanyexploratonofpostmod
ern forms to compare wth the detaled dscussons oflassan
or]encks.]heneteffectwasa dscursvedsperson.ontheone
hand,phlosophcal overvew wthout sgnhcant aesthetc con-
tenr, ontheotheraesthetcnsghtwthoutcoherent theoretca
horzon.thcmatccrystallzatonhadoccurred - thepostmo
ern was now, as labermas put t, 'on the agenda` - withc
ntellectualntegraton.
]he held, however, dd dsplay another knd ofunty. t was
deologcally consstent. ]he dea ofthe postmodern, as t took
holdnthsconiuncture,wasnonewayoranotheranappanage
of the Rght. lassan, laudng play and ndetermnacy as hall
marks ofthe postmodern, made no secretofhs aversontothe
sensblty that was ther antthess. the ron yoke of the Ieft.
]encks celebrated the passng ofthe modernasthe lberaton of
45
consumer choce, a quetus to plannng n a world where
panters could trade as freely and globally as bankers. Ior
Iyotard the very parameters of the new condton were set by
the dscredtng of socalsm as the last grand narrative -
ultmate verson ofan emancpaton that no longer held mean
ng. labermas, resstng allegance to the postmodern, from a
poston stll on the Ieft, nevertheless conceded the dea to the
Rght, construng t as a hgure of neo-conservatsm. Common
to allwassubscrptontotheprncples ofwhatIyotard - once
the most radcal - called lberal democracy, as the unsurpass
ablehorzonofthetme]herecouldbenothng butcaptalsm.
]hepostmodernwasasentenceonalternatvellusons.
46

LaOIuIC
Such was the stuaton when Iredrc ]ameson gave hs hrst
lecture on postmodernsm n the fall of I982. ]wo works had
establshed hm as the world`s leadng Marxst lterary crtc,
although he had already made the terms too restrctve. Marx
ism and Form ' I97I was an orgnal reconstructon, through
studes of Iukacs, loch, Adorno, eniamn and Sartre, of
vrtually the complete ntellectual canon of Vestern Marxsm
betweenHistory and Class Consciousness and the Critique of
Dialectical Reason, from the standpont of a contemporary
aesthetcs true to ts many-sded legacy. The Prison-House of
Language ' I972 offered a complementary account of the
lngustc model developed by Saussure and ts proi ectons n
Russan formalsm and Irench structuralsm, concludng wth
thesemotcs ofarthesandCremas.anadmrngbutstrngent
survey ofthe merts andlmts ofa synchronc tradtonthat set
tsfaceaganstthetemptatonsoftemporalty.
Sources
]ameson`sowncommtmentsasacrtcwerehrmanddistmctn0.
]hey are perhaps best captured by hs Afterword to Aesthetics
and Politics ' I976 , a volumecollectng the classc debatesthat
had ranged Iukacs, recht, loch, eniamn and Adorno
avanst each other. Ior ]ameson, wrtng i ust as notons of
postmodernsm werebegnnngto crculatenlteraturedepart
ments, what was atstake n these exchangeswas 'theaesthetc
conflct betweenrealsm and modernsm, whosenavgatonand
47
THE ORI GINS OF POSTMODERNITY
renegotaton sstll unavodableforustoday` . 'Ifeachretaned
ts truth, yet nether could any longer be accepted as such, the
emphass of]ameson`s accountfell, subtlybutumstakeably, on
the unregarded sde of the opposton. Vhle notng the
dehcences ofIukacs`s attempt to prolong tradtonal forms of
realsm nto the present, he ponted out that recht could not
betakensmplyas amodernstantdote,gvenhsownhostlty
to purely formal expermentaton. recht and eniamn had
ndeed looked towards arevolutonaryartcapableofappropr
atng modern technology to reach popular audences - whle
Adorno had more specously contended thatthe formal logc of
hgh modernsm tself, n ts very autonomy and abstracton,
was the only true refuge of poltcs. ut the post-war develop
mentofconsumercaptalsm hadstruckaway thepossbltyof
ether: the entertanmentsndustrymockngthe hopes ofrecht
or eniamn, whle an establshment culture mummhed the
exemplaofAdorno.
]heresultwasapresentnwhch' bothalternatvesofrealsm
andmodernsmseemntolerabletous: realsmbecausetsforms
revveanolderexperence ofaknd oflfethatsno longerwth
usnthealreadydecayedfutureofconsumersocety,modernsm
because ts contradctons have n practce proved more acute
than those of realsm`. Irecsely here, t mght be thought, lay
an openng for postmodernsm as the art of the age. Vhat s
strkng nretrospect,however, s not somuchthatthsresolu
ton s avoded. It s consdered and reiected. 'An aesthetc of
noveltytoday- alreadyenthroned asthedomnantcrtcal and
formaldeology- mustseekdesperatelytorenewtselfby ever
more rapd rotatons of ts own axs, modernsm seekng to
become postmodernsm wthout ceasng to be modern. ` ]he
sgns of such nvoluton were the return of hguratve art, as a
representaton of mages rather than thngs n photo-realsm,
andthe revval ofntrguenhcton,wtha pastche ofclasscal
narratves. ]ameson`s concluson was a calculated dehance of
ths logc, turnngts terms aganst tself. 'Incrcumstances lke
1 'Reflections in Conclusion' to Ernst Bloch et al., Aesthetic and Politics, London
1977, p. 196; reprinted as 'Reflections on the Brecht-Lukacs Debate', in The
Ideologies ofTheor, Val l , Minneapolis 1988, p. 133.
48
CAPTURE
these, there s some queston whether the ultmate renewal of
modernsm, the hnal dalectcal subversonofthe now automa-
tzedconventonsofanaesthetc ofperpetualrevoluton, mght
notsimplybe. . . realsmtself| ` . Sncetheestrangng technques
of modernsm had degenerated nto standardzed conventons
of cultural consumpton, t was ther 'habt of fragmentaton`
'
that now itself needed to be estranged n some freshly totalzng
art. ]he debates ofthe nter-war perod thus had a paradoxcal
lessonforthepresent. 'Inan unexpecteddcnouement,tmaybe
Iukacs - wrong ashe mghthave been n the I9JOs - who has
theprovsonallastwordforustoday` . ]hecontradctorylegacy
ofthose years leaves contemporares wth a precse but mpon-
. '
derable task. 'Itcannot ofcoursetellus whatourconcepton of
realism oughtto be, yet its study makes t mpossble for usnot
tofeeltheoblgatontorenventone` .
]ameson`s ntal glmpse of postmodernsm thus tended to
see t as the sgn of a knd of nner delquescence wthn
modernsm, the remedy for whch lay n a new realsm, yet to
be magined. ]he tensons wthn ths poston found further,
and stll more ponted expresson nthe programmatc essayhe
oublished on ']he Ideology of the ]ext` at vrtually the same
time. Ior ths crtcal nterventon opens wth the words: 'All
thestrawsnthewnd seem to conhrm the wde-spread feelng
that modern tmes are now over" and that some fundamental
dvde, some basc coupure orqualtatve leap, nowseparates us
decsvely from what used to be the new world of the early
twentieth century, of trumphant modernsm` . Among the
phenomenathattesthedto 'some rrevocable dstancefrom the
mmedate ast` - alongsde the role of computers, of *
F11
rc
of dctente, and others - was 'postmodernsm n literature
art`. All such shfts, ]ameson remarked, tended to
deologies of change, usually apologetc n cast, where a
capable of connecting the current 'greattransformaton` to
long-range destny of our soco-econonc system` was needed.`
2 Aesthetics and Politics, pp. 21 1-213; The Ideologies of Theor, Vol 2, Minnea
polis 1988, pp. 1 45-147.
3 'The Ideology of the Text', Salmagundi, No 31-32, Fall 1975-Winter 1 976,
pp. 204-205; revised version, The Ideologies of Theory, Vol 1 , pp. 17-1 8.
49
nesuch deology, ofpartcular nterest andnlluence, was the
currentdeaoftextualty.
]akngarthes` sstudy ofalzac`s novella Sarrasine asexem
plary ofthe newstyle oflterary analyss - arthes hmself asa
'fever-chart` ofsuccessventellectualfashons - ]amesonargued
that t could be read as a knd of replay of the realsm
modernsm controversy. ]ransformed by arthes nto an oppo
ston betweenthe legbleandthe scrptble, the dualityencour
aged censorous i udgements of realst narratves, whose
moralsm functoned ascompensatonfor an nabltyto stuate
formal dfferences n a dachronc hstory, wthout deologcal
prase or blame. ]he best antdote to such evaluatons was to
'hstorcze the bnary opposton, by addng a thrd term` . Ior
'everythng changes, the moment we envsage a before" to
realsm tself` - medaeval tales, renassance novellas, whch
reveal the pecular modernty of nneteenth century forms
themselves, asa unque and unrepeatable vehcle ofthe cultural
revoluton needed toadapthuman bengs to thenewcondtons
of ndustral exstence. !n ths sense, 'realsm and modernsm
must be seen as spechc and determnate hstorcal expressons
of the type of soco-economc structures to whch they corre-
spond, namely classcal captalsm andconsumercaptalsm. ` !f
ths was not the place for a full Marxst account of that
sequence, 't certanly s the moment to square accounts wth
the ideology of modernsm whch has given ts ttle to the
presentessay`.
]he sgnhcance of ths passage was to le n ts revtston.
]ameson`s supple andngenouscrtque ofarthes nevertheless
left a detectable lacuna between ts ntal premse and such a
concluson. Ior ']he !deology of the ]ext` had started by
regsterng a fundamental dvde between the present and the
tme of modernsm, now dIared 'over`. !f that ntuton was
rght, how could one ofthe symptoms ofths change, thedea
oftextualty, be lttle morethan andeologyofwhatpreceded
t: !t was ths logcal gap that, when he revsed the essay for
book publcaton twelve years later, ]ameson moved to close.
lere, retrospectvely, can be located wth great precson the
4 'The Ideology of the Text', Salmagundi, No 31-32, pp. 234, 242.
50
_j
CAPTURE
thr
eshold to be crossed for a turn to the postmodern. Deleting
the passa
g
e above, henow wrote. ']he attemptto unsettle this
seemingly
ineradicable dualism by addine a third term, in the
form of some classical " - or pre-capitalist - narrative proved
to have only partial success, modtfyrng arthes` s working
cate
g
o
ries but not his fundamentaI historical scheme. Let us
the
refore attempt to displace this last in a dIIerent way, b
y
introducing a third term as it were at the other end of its
temporal spectrum. ]he concept of postmodernism in fact
incorporatesal|the features ofthearthesianaesthetic` .`
Jhis was the view that, tantalizingly close, still remained| ust
out of reach in the late seventies. ther texts of the period
hesitate at the same ford. Vhat enabled jameson to make the
passage with such brio at the Vhitney - delivering a complete
theory
,
virtually at a stroke - a tew years later: Some of the
sources of the change in direction were later to be noted by
jameson himself; others reman a matter for conj ecture. ]he
hrst and most important lay n his own initial sense of the
noveltyofpost-warcapitalism.]heveryhrstpagesofMarxism
and Form stressed the sunderingof all continuity with rhe past
by the newmodes oforganization ofcaptal. ']herealty with
which the Marxist criticism of the 1>0` s had to deal was that
oIa simplerIuropeand America, whichnolongerexist. Sucha
world had more in common with the life-forms of earlier
centuries than it does with our own'
.
Jhe receding of class
condict wthi n the metropolis, while violence was proiected
without,thc enormous weightefadvertisingandmedia Iantasy
in suppressing the realities of division and exploitation, the
dsconnexion of private and pub!ic existence - all this
created a society withoutprecedent. '!npsychologicalterms,
may say that as a service economy wc are henceforth so
removed from the realiues nI production and work that
inhabit a dream world of artihcial stimuli and televised experi-
ence:neverinanyprevious cvilzation havethegreatmetaphys
-
ical preoccupations, the fundamenral questions of being and of
themeaningoflife,seemedsoutterlyremoteandoointless` .
T/e|deologiesofT/eor,Val l , p. 66. Written in the late eighties.
MarxismandIorm,Princeton 1971, pp. xii-xiii.
51
lere, rght from the start, can beseen the orgns ofthemes
that were to hgure so largely n ]ameson`s later work on
postmodernsm. ]wo nlluences, byhs own account, helped to
developthem,enablnghm to stageeachtoqutenew effect n
the eghtes. ne was the publcaton of Irnest Mandel`s Late
Capitalism, whch oflered the hrst systematc theory of the
hstory of captal to appear snce the war, provdngthe bass-
emprcal and conceptual - for understandng the present as a
qualtatvelynew conhguraton n the traiectoryofths mode of
producton. ]ameson was to express hs debt to ths path
breakng work on many occasons. A second - lesser, though
stll sgnhcant - stmulus came from audrllard`s wrtng on
the role ofthe smulacrumn thecultural magnary ofcontem
porary captalsm.' ]h\as a lne of thnkng ]ameson had
antcpated, but audrllard` s tme n San Degowhen ]ameson
was teachng there certanly had an mpact on hm. ]he
dfference, ofcourse,sthatbythsdate audrllard - orgnally
close to the Stuatonsts - vehemently dsmssed the Marxst
legacythatMandelsetour`todevelop.
Anotherkndofcatalystcanprobablybetracedto]ameson`s
departure for Yale at the end of the seventes. Ior ths, of
course, wastheunverstywhoseArt andArchtecture buldng,
desgned by Iaul Rudolph, doublng as dean of the school of
archtecture, had been sngled out by\enturas an eptome of
the null brutalsm nto whch the Modern Movement had
declned, and where \entur, Scully and Moore all taught
themselves. ]ameson thus found hmself n the vortex ofarch
tectural conllcts between the modern and the postmodern. !n
good-humouredlyrecordngthatthswastheartthatawakened
For Jameson's acknowledgement of these sources, see 'Marxism and Postmodern
ism', in The Cultural Turn - Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998,
London-New York 1998, pp. 34-35. Baudrillard presents a special case for any
genealogy of the postmodern. For although his ideas certainly contributed to its
crystallization, and his style can be regarded as paradigmatic of its form, he himself
has never theorized postmodernism, and his single extended pronouncement on it is
a virulent repudiation: see 'The Anorexic Ruins', in D. Kamper and C. Wulf (eds),
Looking Back at the End of the World, New York 1989, pp. 41-42. This is a
thinker whose temper, for better or worse, is incapable of assent to any notion with
collective acceptation.
52
I'
1
CAPTURE
hm from 'dogmatc slumbers`,]ameson nodoubtrefers toths
settng. !t mght be better to say that t released hm for the
vsual. Up to the eghtes, ]ameson had concentrated hs atten
ton all butexclusvely on lterature. ]he turntoa theory ofthe
postmodern was, at the same stroke, to be an arrestng shftto
the
range
of arts - nearly the full range - beyond t. ]hs
nvolvedno drftofpoltcalmoorngs. !nthemmedatecaseof
the bult envronment, he had a sgnhcant resource to hand
wthn the legacy of Vestern Marxsm n the work of lenr
Iefebvre - another guest n Calforna. ]ameson was perhaps
the hrst outsde Irance to make good use of Iefebvre`s corpus
ofsuggestvedeas ontheurbanandspatal dmensons ofpost
warcaptalsm, as he was laterqucktoregsterthe formdable
archtectural wrtng of the\enetancrtc Manfredo ]afur, a
Marxstofmore Adornan stamp.
Inally there was perhaps the drect provocaton posed by
Iyotard hmself. Vhen an Inglshtranslaton ofLa Condition
Postmoderne was at length ready n I 982, ]ameson was asked
to wrte an ntroducton to t. Iyotard`s assault on meta
narratvesmghthavebeenamed spechcally at hm. Ioriust a
year before he had publshed a maior work of lterary theory,
The Political Unconscious, whose central argument was the
most eloquent and express clam for Marxsm as a grand
narratve ever made. 'nly Marxsm can gve us an adequate
sense ofthe essental mystery ofthe culturalpast`, hewrote - a
'mystery |that] can only be reenacted fthe human adventure s
one`. nly thus could such long-dead ssues as a trbal tran
shumance, a theologcal controversy, clashes n the polis, duels
n nneteenth century parlaments, come alve agan. ']hesc
matters can recover ther urgency for us only fthey are rct
wthn the unty of a sngle great collectve story, only
however dsgusedandsymbolcaform,theyareseen as shan
a sngle fundamental theme - for Marxsm, the collectvc
struggle towrest arealm ofIreedomfrom arealm ofecessty,
only f they are grasped as vtal epsodes n a sngle vast
unhnshed plot`.VhenIyotardlaunched hs attack, no Marx-
sthadeveractuallypresentedMarxsmasnessenceanarratve
T/ePolitical Unconscious, Ithaca 1981, pp. 19-20.

53
- twas more commonly understood as an analytc. ut two
years later, as f on demand, ]ameson offered exactly what
Iyotard had supposed.
utfnths senseThe Postmodern Condition must,whenhe
came upon t, have been the most drectchallenge to ]ameson
concevable, another sde ofIyotard` sargumentwas uncannly
smlar to hs own. Ior the premse ofboththnkers- speltout,
fanythng,evenmoreemphatcallyby Iyotardthan]ameson -
was that narratve was a fundamental nstance of the human
mnd. ]he provocaton ofIyotard`s accountofpostmodernty
mustthus to some extent also have acted as an ambvalent fol
for]ameson, quckenng hs own rellectons onthe subiect. ]he
dfhcult task ofntroducng a work wth whose overall stance
hecanhave had solttle sympathy, he acquttedwthgrace and
gule. Iyotard`s case was certanly strkng. ut n ts concen
traton on the scences, t sad lttle about developments n
culture, and was notvery forthcomng about poltcs, or ther
ground nchangesnsoco-economclfe.'lerewastheagenda
towhch]amesonwouldnowturn.
Five Moves
]he foundng text whch opens The Cultural Turn, ]ameson`s
lecture to the Vhtney Museum of Contemporary Arts n the
fall of I982, whch became the nucleus of hs essay 'Iostmod
ernsm - the Cultural Iogc of Iate Captalsm` publshed n
New Left Review nthesprngofI98+,redrewthewholemap
of the postmodern at one stroke - a prodgous naugural
gesture that has commanded the held ever snce. Ive decsve
moves marked ths nterventon. ]he hrst, and most fundamen
tal, came wth ts ttle - the anchorage of postmodernsm n
obi ectve altcratons ofthe economc order ofcaptal tself. ô
9 For Lyotard, not only was 'narration the quintessential form of customary
knowledge' before the arrival of moder science, but 'the little narrative remains
the quintessential form of imaginative invention, most particularly in science': La
Condition Postmoderne, pp. 38 and 98; The Postmodern Condition, pp. 19 and 60;
while Jameson viewed 'story-telling as the supreme function of the human mind':
The Political Unconscious, p. 123.
10 'Foreword' to The Postmodern Condition, pp. xii-xv.
54
:
CAPTURE
longer mere aesthetc break orepstemologcal shft, postmod-
ernty becomes the cultural sgnal of a newstage nthehstory
ofthe regnant mode of producton. !t s strkng that ths dea,
before whch lassan had hestated andthenturnedaway,was
qute foregn to Iyotard and labermas, although both came
from Marxstbackgroundsbynomeansaltogetherextnct.
At the Vhtney, the term 'consumer socety` acted as a knd
ofprelmnary range-hnder for a survey at hgher resoluton to
come. !nthe subsequent verson,forNew Left Review, the 'new
moment of mult-natonal captalsm` came more fully nto
focus. lere ]ameson ponted to the technologcal exploson of
modern electroncs, and ts role as leadng edge of proht and
nnovaton, tothe organzatonalpredomnanceoftransnatonal
corporatons, outsourcng manufacturng operatons to cheap
wage locatons overseas, to the mmense ncrease n the range
ofnternatonal speculaton, and to the rse ofmeda conglom-
erates weldng unprecedented power across communcatons
and borders alke. ]hese developments had profound conse-
quences for every dmenson of lfe n advanced ndustral
countres - busness cycles, employmentpatterns, classrelaton
shps, regonal fates, poltcal axes. ut n a longer vew, the
most fundamental change of all lay n the new exstental
horzon of these socetes. Modernzaton was now all but
complete,oblteratngthelastvestgesnotonly ofpre-captalst
socal forms, but every ntact natural hnterland, of space or
experence,thathadsustanedorsurvvedthem.
In a unverse thus abluted of nature, culture has necessarly
expandedtothepontwherethasbecomevrtuallycoextensvc
wththeeconomytself, notmerelyasthe symptomatcbass
some of the largest ndustres n the world toursm
exceedng all other branches of global employment- but
more deeply, as every materal obiect and mmateral
becomes nseparably tractable sgn and vendble commodity.
Culture n ths sense, as the nescapable tssue of lfe under latc
captalsm, s now our second nature. Vhere modernsm drew
ts purpose and energes from the persstence of what was not
yetmodern,the legacyofastllpre-ndustral past, postmodern
sm sgnhesthe closure ofthatdstance, the saturatonofevery
pore of the world n the serum of captal. Marked out by no
55
starkpoltcalcaesura,nosuddenstorm nthehstorcalheavens,
ths 'very modest or mld apocalypse, the merest sea-breeze` ' '
represents amomentoustransformaton nthe underlyng struc-
turesofcontemporarybourgeossocety.
Vhathave beentheconsequencesofthschangenthe obiect
world for the experence of the subiect: ]ameson`s nd
dstnctve move was exploraton of the metastases of the
p
s
s new coniuncture. Intally broached as terse
commentary on the 'death ofthe subiect`, hs development of
ths theme soon became perhaps the most famous of all facets
of hs constructon of the postmodern. In a seres of arrestng
phenomenologcal descrptons, ]ameson sketched the Lebens
welt characterstc ofthetme, asthespontaneousforms ofthe
postmodernsensblty. ]hswasapsychclandscape,heargued,
whose ground had been broken by the great turmol of the
sxtes - when so many tradtonal casngs of dentty were
broken apart by the dssoluton ofcustomary constrants - but
now, after the poltcal defeats of the seventes, purged of all
radcal resdues. Among the trats of the new subiectvty, n
fact, was the loss oun_ ctivc sense-~ otlstOy. ethas hopc
nrmmr\. ]he charged sense of the past - as eiher agne
cd
of repressve tradtons, or reservor of thwarted dreams, and
heghtenedexpectancy ofthe future - aspotental cataclysm or
transhguraton - whch had characterzed modernsm, was
gone. Atbest, fadng backnto a perpetual present, retro-styles
andmagesprolferatedassurrogatesofthetemporal.
Inthe ageofthesatellteandoptcalhbre, ontheotherhand,
the spatal commands ths magnary as never before. ]he
electroncunhcatonoftheearth, nsttutngthesmultanetyof
eventsacrossthe globe asdaly spectacle, has lodged avcarous
geography n the recesses of every conscousness, whle the
encrclngnetworks ofmultnatonalcaptal that actually drect
the system exceed the capactes of any percepton. ]he ascen
dency of space over tme n the make-up ofthe postmodern s
thusalways off-balance: therealtestowhchtanswersconst
tutvely overpowerng t - nducng, ]ameson suggests n a
celebrated passage, that sensatonwhch s only to be captured
` ` Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Durham 1991, p. xiv.
56
CAPTURE
by a sardonc updatng ofthe lesson of Kant. the 'hystercal
subl
me` .
Conventonally hystera denotes anoverptchng ofemoton,
a half-conscousfegnngofntenstythebettertoconceal some
nner numbness 'or psychoanalytcally, the other way round .
Ior]ameson, ths s a general condtonof postmodern exper
ence, marked by a 'wanngofaffect` thatensues asthe bounded
self of old begns to fray. ]he result s a new depthlessness of
the subiect, no longer heldwthnstable parameters, where the
regsters of hgh and low are unequvocal. lere, by contrast,
psychc lfe becomes unnervngly accdented and spasmodc,
marked by sudden dps oflevel or lurches of mood, that recall
somethngofthefragmentatonofschzophrena.]hsswervng,
stammerng lluxprecludes ether cathexs or hstorcty. Sgnh
cantly, to the vacllatons of lbdnal nvestment n prvate lfe
has corresponded an eroson of generatonal markers n publc
memory, as the decades snce the sxtes have tended to llatten
out nto a featureless sequence subsumed under the common
roster ofthe postmoderntself. ut fsuch dscontnutyweak
ens the sense of dfference between perods at the socal level,
ts effects arefarfrommonotone atthe ndvdual level. ]here,
on the contrary, the typcal polartes of the subiect run from
the elaton of the 'commodty rush`, the euphorc hghs of
spectator or consumer, to the deiecton at the bottom of 'the
deeper nhlstc vod ofour beng`,asprsonersofan order that
resstsanyothercontrolormeanng.'
lavng set out the force-held ofpostmodernty n structural
changesoflatecaptalsm,andapervasveladderngofdenttes
underthem, ]ameson couldmakehsthrdmove, ontheterran
of culture tself. lere hs nnovarou
was topcal. lthc

every soundng of the postmodern had been sectoral. Lc
and Iedler had detected t n lterature, lassan enlarged t
pantng and musc, f more by alluson than by exploraton,
]encks concentrated on archtecture, Iyotard dwelt onscence,
labermas touched onphlosophy. ]ameson`swork has been oI
another scope - a mai estc expanson ofthe postmodern across
vrtually the whole spectrum of the arts, and much of the
`
Postmodernism, pp. 317.

57
dscourse flankng them. ]he result s anncomparably rcher
andmore comprehensve mural oftheagethananyotherrecord
ofthsculture.
Archtecture, the spur to]ameson`sturnbeyond the modern,
has always remaned at the centre of hs vson of what
succeeded t. ls hrstextended analyss of a postmodernwork
was the great set-pece on Iortman`s Bonaventure hotel n Ios
Angeles, whosedcbutsto befoundbelow- onthe evdenceof
ctaton, the most memorable sngle exercse n all the lterature
on postmodernsm. ]ameson`s later medtatons have pcked a
delberate path through a crowded held of canddates for
commentary. hrst Cehry, then Isenmann and Koolhaas. ]he
paramountcyofspacenthecategorcalframeworkofpostmod-
ern understandng, as he read t, more or less ensured that
archtecturewould have prde ofplace ntheculturalmutaton
of late captalsm at large. lere, ]ameson has consstently
argued, explosve energes of nventon have been released, na
range of forms from the spare to the sumptuous, that no rval
arttoday can match, whle at the same tme also hgurng, more
graphcally than any other art, dfferent knds of subsumpton
tothe newworldeconomcsystem, orattemptstoeludet - not
only n the practcal dependence ofts arports, hotels, bourses,
museuLs,vllas ormnstres onestmatesofprohtorwhmsof
prestge,butnthetangbltyoftsshapesthemselves.
ext n the system of postmodern arts comes thecn__.
Surprsng though tmay seem nretrospect, hlm was aconspc
uous absence n earler dscusson of postmodernsm. ot that
ths slence was qute nexplcable. ]he prncpal reason for t
can probably be found n a famous remark of Mchael Ired.
'the cnema s not, even at ts most expermental, a modernst
art`. le meant n part that hlm, as the most mxed of all
medums, was debarred from that drve to a purty ofpresence
spechc to each art, absolved of reference to any other, that
Creenberg hadheldto be the royal road ofthe modern. utthe
i udgement could be taken n another, more wdely felt sense.
Iorhadnotthetrumphoflollywoodrealsmactuallyreversed
13 'Art and Obj ecthood', Artforum, June 1 967; reprinted in G. Battcock (ed),
Minimal Art, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1 995, p. 141.
58
CAPTURE
thc traicctory oImodcrnsm, Jcchncolor banshng thc audac-
tcs oIslcntcncmato thcprc-hstoryoIthc ndustry: Such, at
anyratc, wasthcchallcngcthat]amcsoncamctotakcup.
Ms ntal ntcrcst was caught by a hlmc gcnrc that hc
cvcntually dubbcd wth a suggcstvc oxymoron 'nostalga Ior
thc prcscnt` . hlms lkc Body Heat or n anothcr kcy Star Wars,
or yctaganBlue Velvet, thatcxprcsscvcnmorcdccplythanthc
wavcoImode nitro movcspropcr ovcrtwo dccadcs oIoutput
now, Irom American Grafti to Indochine - thc pccularly
postmodcrn loss oI any scnsc oIthc past, n a hddcn contam-
naton oIthc actual by thc wstIul, a tmc ycarnng Ior tsclI at
an mpotcnt, covcrt rcmovc. II such Iorms, surrogatcs or ds-
placcmcnts oItruc pcrodc mcmory, tracc a corrupton oI thc
tcmporal, othcrgcnrcs canbc rcad as rcsponscs to thc arrvaloI
thcultra-spatal. abovc all,thc conspracy hlm - Videodrome or
The Parallax View, ntcrprctcd as blnd allcgorcs oI thc unrc-
prcscntablc totalty oI global captal and ts mpcrsonal nct-
worksoIpowcr.
In duc coursc, ]amcson procccdcd to thc Iullcr thcorzaton
oIthchstoryoIthccncmawhchlaynthc logcoIhscnqury.
Jhcrc wcrc two scparatc cyclcs n thc dcvclopmcnt oI ths art,
hc argucd. Slcnt hlm had ndccd Iollowcd a pathIron rcalsm
to modcrnsm, I onc - by rcason oI ts tmng as a tcchncal
possblty - out oI rhythm wth thc movc Irom natonal to
mpcralcaptalsmthat othcrwscprcsdcd ovcr ths transton.
ut ths dcvclopmcnt was cut oII by sound bcIorc thcrc could
bc any chancc oI a postmodcrn momcnt. A sccond cyclc thcn
rccaptulatcd thc samc phascs at a ncw tcchnologcal lcvcl,
Mollywoodnvcntng a scrccn rcalsm wth a panoply oInarra-
tvcgcnrcs andvsualconvcntonsalltsown, andthc!uro
art cncma oI thc post-war ycars producng a Ircsh vavc
hgh modcrnsm. II thc postmodcrn cncma that had s
appcarcd was stampcd by thc compulsons oI nostalga, .-.
Iortuncs oIthc movng magc n ths pcrod wcrc by no mcans
lockcd onthcm alonc. Indccd, vdcowasmorclkclyto cmcrgc
as thc pccularly postmodcrn mcdum - whcthcr n thc
domnant Iorms oI commcrcal tclcvson, n whch cntcrtan-
mcnt and advcrtsng wcrc now vrtually Iuscd, or n thc
oppostonal practccs oI undcrground vdco. Incvtably, thc
59
crtcsm oIthc Iuturc wouldhavctoconccrn tsclIncrcasngly
wththcsc.
Jhc world oI graphc dcsgn and advcrtsng, n turn, now
ncrcasngly ntcrpcnctratcd wth thc hnc arts, as mpulsc to
stylc or sourcc oI matcral. !n pctoral spacc, postmodcrn
dpthlcssss had Iound pcrIcctcd cxprcsson n thc cncrvatcd
sufccs oIVarhol`s work, wth thcr hypnotcally cmpty aItcr-
magcsoIthc Iashonpagc, thc supcrmarkct shclI, thctclcvson
scrccn. Mcrc ]amcson was to stagc thc most bravura oI all
iuxtapostons bctwccn hgh modcrn and postmodcrn, n a
comparson oI \an Cogh`s pcasant boots, cmblcms oI carthly
labour rcdccmcd n a pyrc oI colour, and onc oIVarhol`s scts
oI pumps, vtrcous smulacra wthout tonc or ground, sus-
pcndcd n ancy vod. Jhc arrval oIop Art had, nIact, long
bccn notcd by]amcson asa baromctrcwarnng oIatmosphcrc
changcs undcr way - prcsagcs oI a wdcr cultural ant-cyclonc
to comc. ncc Iully n thc postmodcrn, howcvcr, hs attcnton
movcd topractccsthatsoughtto outrangc thc convcntonsths
momcnt had lcItbchnd, naconccptualartbrcakngIrcc oIthc
pctoral Iramc altogcthcr. !n thc nstallatons oI Robcrt Cobcr,
rcvcrcs oIunplaccablc communty, and Mans Maackc, battlc-
kts oI Iorcnsc nsurgcncy, altcrnatvc knds oI magnaton -
owng somcthng to [mcrson or Adorno - wrcst utopan
clcaranccs out oI thc claustral prcssurcs oI thc postmodcrn
tsclI.
Such radcal cncrgcs, rclcascd as thc boundarcs bctwccn
pantng and sculpturc, buldng and landscapc ncrcasngly
dssolvc, bclong to a wdcr productvty, obscrvablc n many
morc plablc Iorms. ccular to ths culturc, ]amcson rcmarks,
s a prvlcgc oIthcvsual thatmarks t oIIIrom hgh modcrn-
sm, n whch thc vcrbal stll rctancd most oI ts anccnt
authorty. ôt that ltcraturc has bccn lcss aIIcctcd by thc
changc oIpcrod, but n]amcson`s vcw lcss orgnal work has
bccn gcncratcd by t. or hcrc, pcrhaps morc thann any othcr
art, thc most nsstcnt motI oI thc ncw was a - playIul or
portcntous - parastsm on thcold. !n]amcson`stcxts, thcnamc
oI ths dcvcc s Jhc sourcc oI ths usagc lay n
Adorno`s crtquc I hc took to bc thc rcgrcssvc cclcct-
csm oI Stravnsky n The Philosophy of Modern Music; but
60
CAPTURE
]amcsongavcta morcpontcddchnton. astchcwas a 'blank
parody`, wthout satrc mpulsc, oI thc stylcs oI thc past.
Sprcadng Irom archtccturc to hlm, pantng to rock-musc, t
hadbccomcthcmoststandardzcdsgnaturc oIthcpostmodcrn,
acrosscvcryart. uttmghtbcargucdthathctonwasnowthc
doman oI pastchc par excellence. or hcrc mmcry oI thc
dcIunct, unhampcrcd by buldng codcs or box oIhcc con-
strants, could shuIflcnotonlystylcs but also pcrodsthcmsclvcs
at wll - rcvolvng and splcng 'arthcal` pasts, blcndng thc
documcntary and Iantastc, prolIcratng anachronsms, n a
massvc rcvval oI what must pcrIorcc stll bc tcrmcd - thc
hstorcal novcl. ]amcson spottcd ths Iorm at ts nccpton, n
an clcgac rcadng oI octorow`s poltcal hctons oI a radcal
Amcrcan past, now Iorgottcn, whcrcthcmpossblty oI hold-
ng stcady any hstorcal rcIcrcnt shadows thc vcry cclpsc thc
novclsmourn.
Alongsdc thcsc changcs n thc arts, and somctmcs ndccd
drcctly at workwthnthcn, thc dscourscs tradtonally con-
ccrncd wththc cultural hcld havcundcrgonc an mploson oI
thcr own. Vhat wcrc oncc thc sharply scparatc dscplncs oI
arthstory, ltcrarycrtcsm, socology, poltcal sccncc, hstory
startcd to losc thcr clcar cdgcs, and cross wth cach n hybrd,
transvcrsc cnqurcs that could no longcr casly bc allottcd to
onc or othcr doman. Jhc work oI Nchcl oucault, ]amcson
notcd,was a IorcmostcxamplcoIsuchanunassgnablcocuvrc.
Vhat was rcplacng thc old dvsons oI thc dscplncs was a
ncw dscursvc phcnomcnon, bcst ndcatcd by ts Amcrcan
short-hand. 'Jhcory` . JhcdstnctvcIormoImuch oIthswork
rcf|cctcdthcncrcasngtcxtualzaton oIts obiccts - whatcould
bc callcd a rcvval, mmcnscly morc vcrsatlc, oI thc anci
practcc oI 'commcntary`. Icadng cxamplcs oI ths sty|c
litcrary studcs wcrc thc dcconstructvc wrtng oIaul :
and thc 'ncw hstorcsm` oI Valtcr cnn Nchacl, bodcs
work ]amcson has submttcd to admrng but scvcrc crtcsm,
wthout rci cctng thc dcvclopmcnt tsclI - oI which hs own
work on Adorno could n manyways bc rcgardcd as a rcmark-
ablccxamplc.
cyond ts mmcdatc cIIccts, what ths rcorganzaton oIthc
ntcllcctual hcld sgnallcd was a morc Iundamcntal brcak. Jhc
61
hallmark oI modcrnty, Vcbcr had classcally argucd, was
structural dIIcrcntaton. thc autonomzaton oI practccs and
valucs, oncc closcly mnglcd n socal cxpcrcncc, nto sharply
scparatc domans. Jhs sthc proccss that Mabcrmas hasalways
nsstcd cannot bc canccllcd, on pan oI rctrogrcsson. n such
prcmscs, thcrc could bc no morc omnous symptom oI somc
crackngnthc modcrn than thc brcak-down oIthcsc hard-won
dvsons. Jhswasthc proccss rcd had Iorcsccn andIcarcd n
I967. A dccadc latcr, t had not iust sprcad Irom thc arts nto
thc humantcs or socal sccnccs, but wth thc arrval oI thc
phlosophcal post-card and thc conccptual ncon-sgn, was
crodng thc lnc bctwccn thcm. Vhatpostmodcrnty sccmcd to
spcll was somcthng thc grcat thcorsts oI modcrnzaton had
rulcdout. anunthnkablcdc-dIIcrcntatonoIculturalsphcrcs.
Anchoragc oIpostmodcrnsm n thc transIormatons oIcap-
tal, probng oI thc altcratons oI thc subicct, cxtcnson oI thc
span oI cultural cnqury - aItcr thcsc, ]amcson could makc a
logcalIourthmovc.Vhatwcrcthcsocalbascsandgcopoltcal
pattcrn oI postmodcrnsm: Iatc captalsm rcmancd a class
soccty, butno classwthntwasqutcthc samc as bcIorc. Jhc
mmcdatc vcctor oI postmodcrn culturc was ccrtanly to bc
Iound n thc stratum oI ncwly aII|ucnt cmployccs and pro-
Icssonals crcatcd by thc rapd growth oI thc scrvcc and
spcculatvc scctors oI thc dcvclopcd captalst socctcs. Abovc
ths brttlc yuppc laycr loomcd thc massvc structurcs oI
multnatonal corpoiatons thcmsclvcs - vast scrvo-mcchansms
oI producton and powcr, whosc opcratons crss-cross thc
global cconomy, and dctcrmnc tsrcprcscntatons n thc collcc-
tvc magnary. clow, as an oldcr ndustral ordcr s churncd
up, tradtonal class Iormatons havc wcakcncd, whlc scg-
mcntcd dcnttcs and localzcd groups, typcallybascdoncthnc
or scxual dIIcrcnccs, multply. n a world scalc - n thc
postmodcrncpoch, thc dccsvc arcna - nostablc class structurc,,
comparablctothat oIan carlcrcaptalsm, has yct crystallzcd.
Jhosc abovc havc thc cohcrcncc oIprvlcgc, thosc bclow lack
unty and soldarty. A ncw 'collcctvc labourcr` has yct to
cmcrgc. Jhcsc arc condtons, stll, oI a ccrtan vcrtcal
ndchnton.
At thc samc tmc, thc suddcn horzontal cnlargcmcnt oIthc
62
CAPTURE
systcm,
wth thc ntcgraton Ior thc hrst tmc oIvrtually thc
wholc planct nto thc world markct, mcans thc cntry oI ncw
pcoplcs onto thc global stagc, whosc human wcght s rapdly
ncrcasng. Jhc authority oI thc past, constantly dwndlng
undcr prcssurcs oI cconomc nnovaton n thc rst Vorld,
snks n anothcr way wth dcmographc cxploson n thc Jhrd
Vorld, as Ircsh gcncratons oIthc lvngcomc to outnumbcr all
thclcgions oI thc dcad. Jhs cxpanson oIthc bounds oIcaptal
ncvtably dlutcs ts stocks oI nhcritcd culturc. Jhc rcsult s a
charactcrstc drop n 'lcvcl` wth thc postmodcrn. Jhc culturc
oI modcrnsm was ncscapably cltst. produccd by solatcd
cxlcs, dsaIIcctcd mnortcs, ntransgcnt vanguards. An art
cast n hcroc mould, t was consttutvcly oppostonal. not
smply f|outng convcntons oI tastc, but morc sgnhcantly,
dcIyngthc solctatons oIthcmarkct.
Jhc culturc oI postmodcrnsm, ]amcson has argucd, s by
contrastIarmorc dcmotc.or hcrc anothcr andmorc swccpng
sort oI dc-dIIcrcntaton has bccn at work. Jhc bypassng oI
bordcrs bctwccn thc hnc arts has usually bccn a gcsturc n thc
unaccommodatng tradton oIthc avant-gardc. Jhc dssoluton
oI Irontcrs bctwccn 'hgh` and 'low` gcnrcs n thc culturc at
largc, cclcbratcd by cdlcr alrcady at thc cnd oI thc sxtcs,
answcrcd to a dIIcrcnt logc. rom thc start, ts drccton was
uncquvocally populst. !nths rcspcctthcpostmodcrnhas bccn
markcd by ncw pattcrns oI bothconsumpton and producton.
n thc onc hand, Ior cxamplc, lcadng works oI hcton -
boostcd by |avsh advcrtsng and przc-publcty - could rcgu-
larly ht the bcst-scllcr lsts, I not thc wdc scrccn, n a way
carlcr mpossblc. n thc othcr, a sgnhcant rangc oI i|:ic::c
cxcludcd groups - womcn, cthnc and othcr mnortcs, |
grants - gancd acccss to thc postmodcrnIorms, broadcnng i.'>
bass oI artstc output consdcrably. l qualty, somc lccl|n
cIIcctwasundcnablc.thctmc oIthc grcat ndvdualsgnaturc
and mastcr-works oImodcrnsm was ovcr. !n part ths rcf|cctcd
an ovcrduc rcacton aganst norms oI charsma that wcrc now
anachronstc. utt also cxprcsscd a ncwrclatonto thc markct
- thc cxtcnt to whch ths was a culturc oI accompanmcnt,
rathcrthanantagonsm,tothccconomcordcr.
Jhcrcn, howcvcr, layprccsclythcpowcr oIthcpostmodcrn.
63
THE ORI GI NS OF P OSTMODERNI TY
Vhcrcas nts hcyday modcrnsm had ncvcr bccn much morc
than an cnclavc, ]amcson ponts out, postmodcrnsm s now
hcgcmonc. Jhs dd not mcan t cxhausts thc hcld oI cultural
producton.Anyhcgcmony, asRaymond Vllams nsstcd, was
a 'domnant` rathcrthana totalsystcm,oncvrtuallycnsurng -
bccausc oIts sclcctvc dchntons oIrcalty- thc cocxstcncc oI
'rcsdual` and 'cmcrgcnt` Iorms rcsstant to t. ostmodcrnsm
was a domnant oI ths knd, and no morc. ut that was vast
cnough. or ths hcgcmony was no local aIIar. or thc hrst
tmc, twastcndcntallyglobal n scopc. ôtasa purc common
dcnomnator oI thc advanccd captalst socctcs, howcvcr, but
as thc proiccton oI thc powcr oI onc oI thcm. 'ostmodcrnsm
may bc sad to bc thc hrst spcchcally ôrth Amcrcan global
stylc`. '
!I thcsc wcrc thc prncpal coordnatcs oI thc postmodcrn,
what was thc appropratc stancc towards t: ]amcson`s hnal
movc waspcrhapsthcmostorgnal oIall. Mthcrto, t could bc
sad that cvcrysgnhcantcontrbutontothc dca oIpostmod-
crntyhadcarrcd a strong - ncgatvc orpostvc- valuaton oI
t. Jhc antthctcal i udgcmcnts oI Icvn and cdlcr, thc latc
Massan and]cncks, Mabcrmas and Iyotard, oIIcr a sctpattcrn.
rom a rangc oI dstnct poltcal standponts, thc crtc could
cthcr lamcnt thc advcnt oI thc postmodcrn as a corrupton oI
thcmodcrn, orcclcbratc t as ancmancpaton. \cry carly on -
soon aItcr hs Vhtncy lccturc - ]amcson mappcd out an
ngcnous combnatory oI such oppostons n 'Jhcorcs oI thc
ostmodcrn`, rcproduccd n The Cultural Turn. Jhc purposc oI
hs cxcrcsc was to pont thc way out oI ths closcd, rcpcttvc
spacc. ]amcson`s own poltcal commtmcnts wcrc wcll to thc
lcIt oIany oIthc hgurcs chartcd wthn t. Mc alonc had hrmly
dcnthcdpostmodcrnsmwth ancw stagc oIcaptalsm,undcr-
stood n classcal Narxst tcrms. ut mcrc cxcoraton was no
morc IrutIul than adhcson. Anothcr knd oI purchasc was
nccdcd.
Jhctcmptaton to bc avodcd, abovc all, was moralsm. Jhc
complcty oIpostmodcrnsmwththclogc oIthcmarkct and
oI thc spcctaclc was unmstakcablc. ut smplc condcmnaton
14 Postmodernism, p. 20.
64
CAPTURE
oItas a culturcwasstcrlc. Aganandagan - tothc surprsc
oI many, on lcIt and rght alkc - ]amcson has nsstcd on thc
IutltyoImoralzng aboutthcrscoIthcpostmodcrn.Mowcvcr
accuratc mght bc thc local i udgcmcnts t dclvcrcd, such mor-
alsmwas an 'mpovcrshcd luxury` thatahstorcalvcwcould
not aIIord. '` In ths, ]amcson was IathIul to long-hcld convc-
tons. [thcal doctrncs prcsupposcd a ccrtan socal homo-
gcncty, nwhchthcy could rcwrtc nsttutonal cxgcnccs as
ntcrpcrsonal norms, and thcrcby rcprcss poltcal rcaltcs n
'thc archac catcgorcs oI good and cvl, long sncc unmaskcd
by ^ctzschc as thc scdmcntcd traccs oI powcr rclatonshps` .
Vcll bcIorc addrcssng hmsclI to thc postmodcrn, hc had
dchncd thc poston Irom whch hc would vcw t. 'cthcs,
whcrcvcr tmakcstsrcappcarancc,maybctakcn as thc sgn oI
an ntcnt to mystIy, and n partcular to rcplacc thc complcx
and ambvalcnt iudgcmcnts oI a morc propcrly poltcal and
dalcctcalpcrspcctvcwththccomIortablcsmplhcatons oIa
bnarymyth`. ''
Jhcsc rcmarks wcrc amcdata convcntonal moralsm oIthc
rght. ut thcy applcd no lcss to a moralsm oI thc lcIt, that
sought to dsmss or rcicct postmodcrnsm en bloc. Noral
catcgorcs wcrc bnary codcs oI ndvdual conduct, proicctcd
onto thc cultural planc, thcywcrc ntcllcctually and poltcally
dsablng. ôr wcrc thc tropcs oI Kulturkritik oI any grcatcr
aval, wth thcr tact I|ght to thc magnary oI onc or othcr
dyllc past, Irom whosc balcony a Iallcn prcscnt could bc
rcprovcd. Jhc cntcrprsc onwhch]amcson had cmbarkcd - hc
strcsscd that t rcqurcd many hands - was somcthng clsc. A
gcnunc crtquc oI postmodcrnsm could not bc an dcologica!
rcIusal oIt. Rathcrthc dalcctcaIrask was towork our
complctclythrough t, thatour undcrstandngoIthctmcwo
cmcrgc transIormcd on thc sdc. A totalzng comprehension

thc ncw unlmtcd captalsm - a thcory adcquatc to thc globaI
scalc oI ts conncxons and dsi unctons - rcmancd thc unrc-
nouncablc Narxst proicct. !t prccludcd manchcan rcsponscs
16 Fables of Aggression - Wyndham Lewis, the Modernist as Fascist, Berkeley and
Los Angeles 1979, p. 56.
65
tothc postmodcrn.Jocrtcs onthc lcIt nclncdtosuspccthm
oI accommodaton, ]amcson rcplcd wth cquanmty. Jhc col-
lcctvc agcncy ncccssary to conIront ths dsordcr was stll
mssng, but a condton oI ts cmcrgcncc was thc ablty to
grasptIromwthn,asasystcm.
Outcomes
Vth thcsc paramctcrs nplacc, acohcrcntaccount oIpostmod-
crnty had arrvcd. McnccIorward, onc grcat vson commands
thc hcld, scttngthctcrms oIthcorctcaloppostonn thc most
strkngmagnablcway.ItsanormalIatcoIstratcgcconccpts
to bc subicctto uncxpcctcd poltcal capturc and rcvcrsal, nthc
coursc oI dscursvc strugglc ovcr thcr mcanng. Charactcrst-
cally, nths ccntury, thc outcomc havc bccn detournements to
thc Rght - 'cvlzaton`, say, oncc a proud banncr oI progrcs-
svc [nlghtcnmcntthought,bccomng a stgma oIdccadcncc at
thc hands oI Ccrman conscrvatsm, 'cvl soccty`, a tcrm oI
crtquc Ior classcal Narxsm, nova cynosurc n thc dom oI
contcmporary lbcralsm. In thc domnon ovcr thc tcrm post-
modcrnsm won by ]amcson, wc wtncss thc oppostc achcvc-
mcnt. a conccpt\hoscvsonaryorgnswcrc allbutcomplctcly
cIIaccd n usagcs complct wth thc cstablshcd ordcr, wrcstcd
away by a prodgous dsplay oI thcorctcal ntcllgcncc and
cncrgy Ior thc causc oI a rcvolutonary LcIt. Jhs has bccn a
dscursvc vctory gancd aganst all thc poltcal odds, n a
pcrod oI nco-lbcral hcgcmony whcn cvcry Iamlar landmark
oI thc LcIt appcarcd to snk bcncath thc wavcs oI a tdal
rcacton. It was won, undoubtcdly, bccausc thc cogntvc map-
png otthc contcmporaryworld t oIIcrcdcaughtsounIorgctt-
ably - at oncc lyrcally and caustcally - thc magnatvc
structurcs and lvcd cxpcrcncc oIthc tmc, andthcr boundary
condtons.
Mow should wc stuatc ths achcvcmcnt: Jwo answcrs
suggcst thcmsclvcs. Jhc hrst rclatcs to thc dcvclopmcnt oI
]amcson`s own thought. Mcrc thcrc s a notablcparadox. Jhc
vocabulary oIthcpostmodcrncamc, as notcdabovc, rclatvcly
latc to ]amcson, aItcr sgns oI ntal rcscrvaton. ut ts prob-
lcmatc was thcrc vcry carly, and unIolds through succcssvc
66
CAPTURE
works wth astonshng contnuty. In h s hrst monograph,
Sa
rtre
- The Origins of a Style ( 1961) , wrttcn n hs md-
twcntcs, hc was alrcady wrtng oI 'a soccty wthout a vsblc
Iuturc, a soccty dazzlcd by thcmassvcpcrmancncc oI ts own
nsttutons nwhch no changc sccms possblc and thc dca oI

progrcss s dcad` . Jcn ycars latcr, n Marxism and Form,
comparng thc cnchantcd brc-a-brac oI surrcalsm wth thc
co
mmo
dtcs oI a postndustral captalsm - 'products uttcrly
wthout dcpth`, whosc 'plastc contcnt s totally ncapablc oI
scrvng as a conductor oI psychc cncrgy` hc askcd 'whcthcr
wc arc not hcrc n thc prcscncc oI a cultural transIormaton oI
sgnal proportons, a hstorcal brcak oI anuncxpcctcdly abso-
lutcknd: ` . '
Marxism and Form cndcd by obscrvng that a ncw knd oI

modcrnsm, artculatcd by Sontag and Massan, had surIaccd,
whchno longcr - as an oldcr modcrnsmhad- 'rcckoncd wth
thc nstnctvc hostlty oI a mddlcclass publc oI whch t
stood as a ncgaton`, but was rathcr 'popular; maybc not n
smallmdVcstcrntowns, butnthc domnantworldoIIashon
and thc mass mcda` . Jhc hlms oI Varhol, thc novcls oI
urroughs, thc plays oI cckctt wcrc oI ths knd: and 'no
crtquc can havc any bndng Iorcc whch docs not submt to
thcIascnaton oI all thcscthngs as .:||:-:.e..oI rcalty`. A
not dssmlar notc s struck n The Prison-House of Language,
whcrcthc 'dccpcriusthcaton` oIthc usc oIlngustc modclsn
Iormalsm and structuralsm lay not so much n thcr sccnthc
valdty, as n thc charactcr oI contcmporary socctcs, 'whch
oIIcr thc spcctaclc oI a world oI Iorms Irom whch naturc as
suchhas bccn clmnatcd, a world saturatcdwth mcssagcs
nIormaton, whosc ntrcatc commodty nctwork may bc .-
as thc vcry prototypc oI a systcm oI sgns`. Jhcrc was :ia
proIound consonancc bctwccn lngustcs as a mcthod and
systcmatzcd and dscmbodcd nghtmarc whch s our culturc
today`.''
Sartre - The Origins of a Style, New York 1984 (second edition), p. 8.
'
Marxism and Form, p. 105.

Marxism and Form, pp. 413-414.
20
The Prison-House of Language, Princeton 1 972, pp. xviii-ix.
67
assagcslkcthcsc soundlkcsomany orchcstraltunc-upsIor
thc symphony to comc. ut I thcy antcpatc so drcctly
lctmotIs oI ]amcson`s prcscntaton oI thc postmodcrn, thcrc
was pcrhaps anothcr ndrcct prcsagc oIwhat lay ahcad. rom
thc start]amcson sccmstohavc scnscd aknd oIpctrhcatonoI
thc modcrn as a sct oIacsthctc Iorms, that drcwhsntcrcstto
authors who sdclncd or manhandlcd thcm. Jhc two novclsts
to whom hc has dcvotcd Ircc-standng studcs arc ]can-aul
Sartrc and Vyndham Icws. nc rcason Ior hs attracton to
thcm s ccrtanly that both wcrc hghly poltcal wrtcrs, at
oppostc cnds oI thc spcctrum. conoclastc IcIt and radcal
Rght. Anothcr, whch hchmsclIhas strcsscd, swhat]amcson
calls thc 'lngustcoptmsm`thcy sharcd - thc conhdcncc that
anythng could bc cxprcsscd n words, provdcd thcy wcrc
untoward cnough.'
'
ut cqually mportant, and not unrclatcd,
was thc anglc at whch thcy stood to thc manstrcam oI
modcrnsm - Icws solatcd by hs mcchanstc cxprcssonsm,
Sartrc by hs rcvcrsons to thc trappngs oI mclodrama. !nvol-
untarly n thc onc casc ' Icws`s subscqucntncglcctprcscrvng,
as n a tmc-capsulc, 'a Ircshncss and vrulcncc` oI stylzaton
gonc dcad n thc cmbalmng oI hs grcat contcmporarcs , and
voluntarly n thc othcr ' Sartrc` s dclbcratc wavcr oIthc consc-
cratcd Iorms and 'passvc-rcccptvc vocatons` oIthc hgh mod-
crns,''thcscwcrcwrtcrswho nthcrownIashonhadalrcady
bumpcd aganst thc lmts oI modcrnsm. Jhcrc was a tmc
whcn ]amcson thought somc novcl spcccs oI rcalsm mght
cmcrgc bcyond thcm. ut thc spacc Ior a salta mortale nto thc
postmodcrnwas alrcadybcngclcarcd.
\cwcd bographcally, ]amcson`s movcmcnt towards a
thcory oI postmodcrnsm thus sccms vrtually nscrbcd n hs
traicctory Irom thc start - as Iwth thc uncanny cohcrcncc oI
an 'orgnal chocc` n thc Sartrcan scnsc. ut thcrc s anothcr
way oIlookng at thc samc outcomc. ]amcson`s wrtng on thc
postmodcrn bclongs to a spcchc ntcllcctual lnc. !n thc ycars
aItcrthcrstVorldVar, whcnthcgrcatwavcoIrcvolutonary
unrcst n Ccntral [uropc had rcccdcd, and thc Sovct statc was
21 Sartre, p. 204; Fables of Aggression, p. 86.
22 Fables of Aggression, p. 3; Sartre, p. 219.
68
CAPTURE
alrcady burcaucratzcd and solatcd, thcrc dcvclopcd n[uropc
a dstnctvc thcorctcal tradton that cvcntually acqurcd thc
namc oI Vcstcrn Narxsm. orn oI poltcal dcIcat - thc
crushng oIprolctaran nsurgcnccs n Ccrmany, Austra, Mun-
gary and !taly whch ts hrst grcat thnkcrs Iukacs, Korsch and
Cramsc had lvcd through - ths Narxsm was scparatcd Irom
thcclasscalcorpus oIhstorcalmatcralsmbya sharp cacsura.
!n thc abscncc oI a popular rcvolutonary practcc, poltcal
stratcgyIorthc ovcrthrow oIcaptal wancd, and oncc thc grcat
dcprcsson had passcd nto thc Sccond Vorld Var, cconomc
analyssoItstransIormatonstcndcdtolapsctoo.
!n compcnsaton, Vcstcrn Narxsm Iound ts ccntrc oI
gravty n phlosophy, whcrc a scrcs oI outstandng sccond-
gcncraton thnkcrs - Adorno, Morkhcmcr, Sartrc, IcIcbvrc,
Narcusc- constructcd a rcmarkablc hcld oIcrtcal thcory, not
n solaton Irom surroundng currcnts oInon-Narxstthought,
buttypcallyncrcatvc tcnsonwth thcm. Jhswas a tradton
dccply conccrncd wth qucstons oI mcthod - thc cpstcmology
oI a crtcal undcrstandng oI soccty - on whch classcal
Narxsm had lcIt Icwpontcrs. ut ts phlosophcal scopc was
not mcrcly proccdural. t had onc ccntral Iocus oI substantvc
conccrn, whch Iormcd thc common horzon oI ths lnc as a
wholc. Vcstcrn Narxsm was abovc all a sct oI thcorctcal
nvcstgatons oI thc culturc oI dcvclopcd captalsm. Jhc pr-
macy oI phlosophy n thc tradton gavc thcsc cnqurcs a
partcular cast. not cxclusvcly, but dccsvcly, thcy rcmancd
truc to thc conccrns oI acsthctcs. Vhatcvcr clsc t ncludcd,
culturc sgnihcd, hrst and Iorcmost, thc systcm oI thc arts.
Iukacs, cniamn, Adorno, Sartrc, clla \olpcIormcdthcrulc
hcrc, Cramsc or IcIcbvrc, wth a morc anthropologcal scu_
oIculturc, thc cxccpton.'`
or all ts common Icaturcs as a tradton, Vcstcrn11OJ1O1-
wasn manywaysrclatvclyunawarc oI tsclI. nthcwholc,its
lcadng thnkcrs wcrc scarccly apprscd oI cach othcr across
lngustcboundarcswthn [uropc. Jhchrstworkto aIIord an
23 I have discussed the general background and character of this tradition in
Considerations on Western Marxism, London 1 <76: for the latter trait, see
pp. 75-78.
69
ovcrvicw oIits rcpcrtoirc di dnot arrivc till thc carly scvcntics,
Irom Amcrica. andit was nonc othcr thanMarxism and Form.
Mcrc, as innoprcvious tcxt, thcunityand divcrsityoIVcstcrn
Narxism wcrc put on clcgant display. !I ]amcson`s book
conccntratcd on Adorno and cniamin, loch and Narcusc,
Lukacs and Sartrc, lcaving LcIcbvrc and Cramsci- cach notcd
- asidc, in this itkcptto thc promisc oIits titlc. Jhc dominant
strand oIthisdcsccntwasacsthctic. orthchrsttimc, oncmight
say, Vcstcrn Narxism was tacitly Iaccd with its truth. Vhat
did such totalization, howcvcr, signiIy Ior thc Iuturc oI this
tradition: Jhcrc wcrc many, including mysclI, who rcckoncd
that thc conditionswhich had produccd it wcrc now past, and
othcrkindsoINarxism - closcrtoclassicalmodcls - wcrclikcly
torcplaccit.
Jhis cstimatc was bascd on thc rcncwcd radical Icrmcnt in
Vcstcrn [uropc oI thc latc sixtics and carly scvcntics, and on
thc visiblc rcturn oI intcllcctual cncrgics towards qucstions oI
political cconomy and stratcgy that had dominatcd thc oldcr
agcnda oI historical matcrialism.Jhcrcnchuphcaval oI Nay
1968 could bc sccn as a rcvolving bcacon oI this changc,
flashing out thc signal that Vcstcrn Narxism was now ovcr-
takcn, passing tothcrank oIanhonourablc lcgacy. A shrcwdcr
i udgcmcnt saw thc Nay Rcvolt in a somcwhat diIIcrcnt light,
not as thc cnd but thc climax oIthis tradition. ctcr Vollcn`s
Raiding the Icebox is thc only work whosc powcr bcars
comparisonwith]amcson`s as aroutcmap oItwcnticth-ccntury
culturc. A ccntral cpisodc in its narrativc is thc story oI thc
Situationist !ntcrnational, thc last oI thc historic avant-gardcs
'whosc dissolution in 19/2 brought to an cnd an cpoch that
bcgan in aris with thc uturist NaniIcsto oI 19O9` . ut
Situationism, nurturcd on Lukacs, LcIcbvrc and rcton, was
not only this. !n thcorctically igniting thc cxplosion oI Nay
1968, Vol!cnrcmarks, 'wccan cqually scc it asthc summation
oIVcstcrnNarxism`.
Jhis was a morc plausiblc rcading. ut

its upshot was ncvcrthclcss quitc similiar. Jhc lcssons oIVcst-
Raiding the IceBox. Refections on Twentieth Century Culture, London 1993,
p. 124.
70
CAPTURE
crn
Narxism, as oI thc classical avant-gardcs, nccdcd to bc
lcarntandvalucd,butthcirtimcwasup - 'apcriodhascndcd`.'`
!t is this vcrdict]amcson`s work has so pcrIcctly bclicd. Mis
th
corization oI postmodcrnism, starting in thc carly cightics,
takcs its placc among thc grcat intcllcctual monumcnts oI
VcstcrnNarxism. !ndccd, onccouldsaythathcrcthistradition
rcachcd its culmination. Arising oncc again Irom ancxpcricncc
oI political dcIcat - thc quclling oI thc turmoil oI thc sixtics -
and dcvcloping in critical contact with ncw stylcs oI thought -
structuralist, dcconstructivc,nco-historicist IarIromNarxism,
]amcson`s work on thc postmodcrn has answcrcd to hc samc
basic coordinatcs as thc classic tcxts oI thc past. ut I nthat
scnscit is thc continuationoI a scrics, it is also a rccapitulation
oI thc sct at a sccond lcvcl. or hcrc diIIcrcnt instrumcnts and
thcmcs Irom thcrcpcrtoirc oIVcstcrn Narxism arc blcndcd in
aIormidablc synthcsis.romLukacs,]amcsontookhiscommit-
mcnt to pcriodization and Iascination with narrativc, Irom
loch, a rcspcct Ior thc hopcs and drcams hiddcn ina tarnishcd
obicct-world, Irom Sartrc, an cxccptional flucncy with thc
tcxturcs oI immcdiatc cxpcricncc, Irom LcIcbvrc, thc curiosty
about urban spacc, Irom Narcusc, pursuit oI thc trail oI high-
tcch consumption, Irom Althusscr, a positivc conccption oI
idcology, as a ncccssary social imaginary, Irom Adorno, thc
ambition to rcprcscntthctotality oI his obicct as nothing lcss
thana'mctaphoricalcomposition`.''
Such clcmcnts do not lic incrtly togcthcr in Iorccd combi-
nation.Jhcyarcmobilizcdinanoriginalcntcrpriscwhichsccms
cIIortlcsslyLo absorbthcm.JwoIcaturcs cndowthisworkwith
its pcculiar unity. Jhc hrst is ]amcson`s prosc itsclI. Mc oncc
rcmarkcdthatoIthcthinkcrsoIVcstcrnNarxism, ^dorno
'thc suprcmc stylist oIthcm all `.utthcrc arc timcs when

rcadcr might wondcr whcthcr thc dcscription docs not |-: .:
or at any ratc morc consistcntly, apply to himsclI. Mcopcncd
his hrst bookwith thc words. '!t has always sccmcd to mc that
a modcrn stylc is somcthing in itsclI intclligiblc, abovc and
25
Ibid.
26
See Marxism and Form, p. 7.
27 Marxism and Form, p. xiii.
71
bcyond thc lmtcd mcanng oI thc book wrttcn n t, and
bcyond cvcn thosc prccsc mcanngs whch thc ndvdual scn-
tcnccs that makc t up arc ntcndcd to convcy. `' uturc studcs
oI]amcson`s own wrtng could takc ths as a motto. or thc
momcnt, t s cnough to notc two Icaturcs oI a stylc oI
compcllng splcndour. Jhc spacous rhythms oIa complcx, yct
supplc syntax - wcll-ngh ]amcsan n ts Iorms oI addrcss -
cnactthcabsorptonoIso manyvarcgatcdsourccsnthcthcory
tsclI, whlc thc suddcn bursts oI mctaphorcntcnsty, cxhlar-
atng hgural lcapswth a hgh-wrc eclat all oI thcr own, stand
as cmblcms oIthc bold dagonal movcs, closcr to a poctc than
analytc ntcllgcncc, wth whch ths work uncxpcctcdly cross-
connccts dsparatc sgns oIthc total phcnomcnon n vcw. Vc
arcdcalngwthagrcatwrtcr.
Atthc samc tmc,]amcson`swork on thc postmodcrn unhcs
thc sourccs onwhcht drawsn adccpcr substantvcscnsc.Jhc
Vcstcrn Narxst tradton was attractcd to thc acsthctc as
nvoluntary consolaton Ior mpasscs oI thc poltcal and ccon-
omc. Jhc rcsult was a rcmarkablc rangc oI rcflcctons on
dIIcrcnt aspccts oIthcculturc oImodcrncaptalsm. utthcsc
wcrc ncvcr ntcgratcd nto a consstcnt thcory oI ts cconomc
dcvclopmcnt, typcally rcmanng at a somcwhat dctachcd and
spccalzcd anglc to thc broadcr movcmcnt oI soccty. taxablc
cvcn wth a ccrtan dcalsm, Irom thc standpont oI a morc
classcal Narxsm. ]amcson`s account oI postmodcrnsm, by
contrast, dcvclops Ior thc hrst tmc a thcory oI thc 'cultural
logc` oI captal that smultancously oIIcrs a portrat oI thc
transIormatons oI ths socal Iorm as a wholc. Jhs s a much
morc comprchcnsvc vson. Mcrc, n thc passagc Irom thc
scctoral to thc gcncral, thc vocaton oI Vcstcrn Narxsm has
rcachcdtsmostcomplctcconsummaton.
Jhc condtons oI ths wdcnng wcrc hstorcal. Jhc vcw
that thc latc sxtcs markcd a crtcal brcak n thc landscapc oI
thc LcIt was not altogcthcr wrong. !ntcllcctually, as thc vcry
ttlc oI hs landmark cssay and book ndcatcs, ]amcson`s turn
to a thcory oI thc postmodcrn was cnablcd by Nandcl`s Late
Capitalism, an cconomc studythat stuatcdtsclIn a classcal
28 Sartre, p. vi.
72
CAPTURE
tradton dstnctIrom any shadc oIVcstcrnNarxsm. [mpr-
cally, cconomc lIc tsclI had anyway bccomc so pcrvadcd by
thc symbolc systcms oI nIormaton and pcrsuason that thc
noton oI an ndcpcndcnt sphcrc oI morc or lcss a-cultural
productonncrcasnglylostmcanng. McnccIorward, anymai or
thcory oI culturc was bound to cncompassmorc oIthc cvlza-
ton oI captal than cvcr bcIorc. Jhc tradtonal obicct oI
Vcstcrn Narxsm was cnormously magnhcd. So ]amcson`s
rcsumpton oItshcrtagc couldycld a muchmorc ccntral and
poltcaldcscrpton oIthccondtonsoIcontcmporarylIcthan
thcprcccdcntstdrcwon.
Crucal to thccIIcct oI]amcson`s accounthcrcs tsscnsc oI
'cpochalty` . Jhs way oI rcadng thc sgns oI thc tmc owcs
much to Iukacs. ut Iukacs`s prncpal cxcrcscs n cpochal
analyss, The Soul and Forms and The Theory of the Novel,
rcman acsthctc or mctaphyscal. Vhcn hc movcd to thc
poltcal, n hs rcmarkablc short study Lenin, Lukacs dchncd
thc cpoch that had opcncd wth thc catastrophc oI thc Crcat
Var as onc stampcd abovc all by 'thc actualty oI rcvoluton` .
Vhcn cvcnts dsappontcd ths cxpcctaton, noIurthcr dcscrp-
ton could Iollow. !t was thcn Cramsc, thc thnkcr wthn
Vcstcrn Narxsm Irom whom ]amcson has takcn lcast, who
trcd to capturc thc naturc oI thc consoldaton or countcr-
rcvolutons oIcaptal bctwccn thc wars. Ms notcs on ordsm
rcprcscnt, n Iact, thc only rcal prcccdcnt n ths tradton Ior
]amcson`s cntcrprsc. !t s no accdcnt that thcy gavc rsc to so
much dscusson aItcr thc Sccond Vorld Var, or varous
attcmpts to skctch thc Icaturcs oI a 'post-ordsm` n thc
scvcntcsandcghtcs.
ut, powcrIul and orgnal ' at tmcs hghly dosyncra
thcy wcrc, Cramsc`s dcas about ordsm - cmbracng
producton, rgorous work-dscplnc and hgh
thc \S, purtansm Ior lowcr ordcrs and lbcrtnagc Ior
strata, scctaran rclgon n lbcral Amcrca and corporatist
organzaton nIascst!taly - ncvcrthclcss rcmancd laconc and
unsystcmatc. !na scnsc,thcr 'cpochalty` too mshrcd.!nmany
rcspccts ahcad oI thc tmc, bchnd t n a Icw, thcsc i ottngs
provcd to bc manly suggcstvc aItcr thc cvcnt. ]amcson`s
account oI thc postmodcrn contans no comparablc nsghts
73
into thc Iabour proccss or production, rcIying asi tdocs on a
scII-standing cconomic Iitcraturc oIits own. utit is, oIcoursc,
cnormouslymorcdcvcIopcd and dctaiIcd as thc dchnition oIan
cpoch, and supportcd by contcmporary cxpcricncc. Yct much
oIthccriticaIchargcoIthisthcoryaIso comcsIromitstcnsion
withthcvcrycIimatcoItimc it dcpicts. or, as wc rcad in thc
hrstscntcncc oIPostmodernism: 'ItissaIcsttograspthcconccpt
oIthcpostmodcrnasanattcmpttothinkthcprcscnthistoricalIy
inan agcthathasIorgottcnhowto thinkhistoricaIIyinthchrst
placc` .
II, in all thcscways,]amcson`swork appcarslikc a grandiosc

hnaIc oIVcstcrnNarxism, in anothcrway it has signihcantIy
cxcccdcd this tradition. ûrturcd in [uropc, thc work oI its
maior thinkcrs ncvcr movcd Iar bcyond it as an intcIIcctuaI
Iorcc. Iukacs was knownin]apan bcIorc thc war, and incxiIc
thc rankIurt SchooI discovcrcd thc \nitcd Statcs. Iatcr, Sartrc
was rcad byanonandAIthusscrstudicd inIatinAmcrica. ut
csscntiaIly this was a Narxism whosc radius oI inl|ucncc
rcmaincd limitcd tothc original corc oI thc advanccd capitaIist
worId. Vcstcrn not onIy in its origins and thcmcs, but aIso its
impact. ]amcson`s thcory oI thc postmodcrn has brokcn this
pattcrn. Its initiaI IormuIations wcrc Iocuscd principaIIy on
ôrthAmcrica. utas his work on thc qucstion dcvcIopcd, its
impIicationswidcncd.postmodcrnism, hcconcludcd,was - not
additionaIIy, but intrinsically - thc cuItural cthcr oI a globaI
systcm that ovcrruIcd aIl gcographicaI divisions. Its Iogiccom-
pcIIcdamai orturnin]amcson`sownhcIdoIcnquiry.
\p to thc cvc oIthc cightics, ]amcson`s criticaI practicc was
cxclusivcIy Iitcrary and its obiccts cmincntIy Vcstcrn. roust,
Mcmingway, aIzac, ickcns, [ichcndorII, Iaubcrt, Conrad -
such wcrc thc hgurcs in thc Iorcground oI his attcntion. Vith
thc cightics, thcic is a sharp changc. \isuaI Iorms start to
compctc with writtcn, and rapidIy comc to prcdominatc - a
shiIt cvidcnt in Postmodernism itsclI. SimuItancousIy thcrc is a
striking movcmcnt outwards, to cuIturcs and rcgions bcyond
thc Vcst. In this pcriod, ]amcson was to rcl|cct on Soscki and
Karatani in]apan, Iu ùn and Iao Shc in China, Scmbenc in
29 Postmodernism, p. ix.
74
CAPTURE
ScncgaI andSoI asor arnct nCuba, [dward Yang oIJawan
and KdIak Jahmk oIthc hlppncs.`' In The Cultural Turn,
dscussons can bc Iound oI thc hIms oI auI Icduc, Ncxcan
drcctor oI a sIcnt movc sct n \cnczucla, and SouIcymanc
Cssc Irom NaI. Isthcrc any contcmporary crtcwth ancvcn
dstantIy comparablc rangc:
Jhc scnsc oIsuch ntcrvcntons has bccnto cncouragc a 'gco-
poItcaI acsthctc` adcquatc to thc cnIargcmcnt oI thc cultural
unvcrsc n postmodcrn condtons. Jhs has bccn no cngagc-
mcntIrom aIar. ]amcsonhrst sct out hs dcas on postmodcrn-
sm comprchcnsvcIy n a Iccturccoursc n cing n I985, and
publshcd a coIIcctononthc subicct n Chna somcycars bcIorc
hc produccd onc n Amcrca. Ms account oI 'ostmodcrnsm
andthcNarkct`wastcstcdoutnScouI.Vcowcthc maiortcxt
on 'JransIormatons oI thc Imagc` to an addrcss n Caracas.
ScttngsIkcthcscwcrcnotamattcroIchancc.]amcson`sthcory
oIpostmodcrntyhaswonagrowngaudcncc ncountrcs oncc
oI thc Jhrd or Sccond VorId bccausc t spcaks oI a cuIturaI
magnary Iamlar to thcm, part oI thc wcb oI thcr own
cxpcrcncc. A Narxsm so naturaIIy at homc n thc grcat
mctropoItan ccntrcs oI thc South and thc [ast s no Iongcr
rcstrctvcIy Vcstcrn. Vth ths brcak-out Irom thc ccdcnt,
thc dca oI thc postmodcrn has comc IuII crcIc back to ts
orgnaI nspraton, as a tmcwhcn thc domnancc oI thcVcst
wouId ccasc. lson`s vsonary conhdcncc was not msplaccd,
The Kingfshers couIdvrtualIybcrcadasabrcvctIor]amcson`s
achcvcmcnt.
ut I that was possbIc, t s aIso bccausc ]amcson sharcd
somcthng wth Ison that dstngushcs hm Irom thc ntcllcc
tuaI Inc Irom whch hc dcsccnds. In onc crucaI ...-
]amcson`s work dcparts Irom thc wholc tcnor oI
.
30 See, respectively, 'Soseki and Western Modernism', boundar 2, Fall 1991,
pp. 123-141; ' In the Mirror of Alternate Moderities' , South Atlantic Quarterly,
Spring 1993, pp. 295-310; 'Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational
Capitalism', Social Text, Fall 1986, pp. 65-88; 'Literary Innovation and Modes of
Production' , Modern Chinese Literature, September 1984, pp. 67-72; 'On Literary
and Cultural Import-Substitution in the Third World: the Case of the Testimonio',
Margins, Spring 1991, pp. 1 1-34; The Geopolitical Aesthetic, London 1 992,
pp. 1 14-157, 186-213.
75
Narxsm. Jhat was a tradton whosc maior monumcnts wcrc
n oncwayoranothcr, sccrctly or opcnly, allaIIcctcdbya dccp
hstorcalpcssmsm.`' Jhcr most orgnal and powcrIulthcmcs
- Iukacs`s dcstructon oI rcason, Cramsc` s war oI poston,
cniamn`s angcl oI catastrophc, Adorno`s damagcd subicct,
Sartrc`s volcncc oI scarcty, Althusscr`s ubquty oI lluson -
spokc not oI an allcvatcd Iuturc, but oI anmplacablc prcscnt.
Joncs varcd wthn a common rangc, Irom thc stoc to thc
mclancholy, thc wntry to thc apocalyptc. ]amcson`swrtngs
oIa dIIcrcnt tmbrc. Althoughhs topc has ccrtanly not bccn
onc oI comIort to thc IcIt, hs trcatmcnt oI t has ncvcr bccn
acrmonous or dcspondcnt. n thc contrary, thc magc oI
]amcson`s stylc s to coniurc nto bcng whatmght bc thought
mpossblc - alucdcnchantmcntoIthcworld.
!tsthcmcs arc asgravc as any nthctradton. ut a spray oI
wondcr and plcasurc - thc chanccs oI happncss n a stflng
tmc - s ncvcr Iar Irom thc swcll oI cvcn thc most omnous
rcf|ccton. 'Jo movc, to nstruct, to dclght`. II Icw othcr
subvcrsvc thnkcrs havc comc so closc to thc ams oI art, thc
rcasons arc no doubt n part contngcnt. ]amcson can cvokc
bodly cxpcrcncc as mcmorably as Sartrc, but thc Icclng-tonc
s habtually thc oppostc - ncarcr claton than dsgust. Jhc
plcasurcs oI thc ntcllcct and oI thc magnaton arc no lcss
vvdlyrcndcrcdthanthosc oIthcscnscs. Jhcglowwthwhch
]amcson can cndow obiccts, conccpts, hctons s thc samc.`'
Jhc bographcal sourccs oI ths warmth arc onc thng. !ts
phlosophcal prcmscs arc anothcr. chnd ths conscnt to thc
world lcs thc dccply Mcgclan cast oI ]amcson`s Narxsm,
notcd by many crtcs,` whch has cquppcd hm to conIront
31 For this aspect, see Considerations on Western Marxism, pp. 88-92.
32 Perhaps the fnest example is his essay on Godard's Passion in The Geopolitical
Aesthetic, London 1992, pp. 158-1 85. The contrast with Adoro's treatment of the
object-world, even at its most eloquent, is telling. Compare, on a very similar topic,
the passage in Minima Moralia (p. 40) - itself of great beauty - on the casement
window or gentle latch, and the slamming of car or frigidaire doors, with Jameson's
reverie on the levitations of the Californian garage in Signatures of the Visible
(pp. 1 07-1 08) .
3 3 See, notably, Michael Sprinker, 'The Place of Theory', New Lef Review, No 187,
May-June 1991, pp. 139-142.
76
CAPTURE
thc advcrstcs oIthc cpoch, and work through ts conIusons,
wth an ntrcpd cquanmty all hs own. Catcgorcs such as
optmsm or pcssmsm havc no placc n Mcgcl`s thought.
]amcson`s work cannot bc dcscrbcd as optmstc, n thc scnsc
n whch wc can say oI thc Vcstcrn Narxst tradton that t
was pcssmst. !ts poltcs havc always bccn rcalst. 'Mstory s
whathurts,tswhatrcIuscsdcsrcand sctsncxorablclmtsto
ndvdual as wcll as collcctvc praxs` - abovc all n 'thc
dctcrmnatc Ialurc oI all thc rcvolutons that havc takcn placc
n humanhstory` to datc.` ututopanlongngs arc not casly
rcprcsscd,andcanbcrckndlcdnthclcastprcdctablcoIguscs.
It s ths notc too - thc subtcrrancanpcrsstcncc oI thc wll to
changc - that has gvcn ]amcson`s work ts Iorcc oI attracton
bcyondthcprccnctsoIai adcdVcst.
34 The Political Unconscious, p. 1 02.
77

PICICCCIs
Jhc capturc oIthc postmodcrnby]amcson has sct thc tcrms oI
subscqucnt dcbatc. !t s no surprsc that thc most signhcant
ntcrvcntons sncc hs cntry nto thc hcld havc lkcwsc bccn
Narxst n orgn. Jhc thrcc lcadng contrbutons can bc rcad
as attcmpts to supplcmcnt or corrcct, cach n its own way,
]amcson` sorginalaccount. AlcxCallncos`sAgainst Postmod
ernism ' 1989 advanccs a closcr analyss oI thc politcal back-
ground to thc postmodcrn. avid Marvcy`s Condition of
Postmodernity '199O oIIcrs a much Iullcrthcory oI its ccon-
omic prcsuppostions. Jcry [aglcton`s Illusions of Post
modernism ' 1 996 tacklcsthcmpactoItsdcologcaldiIIusion.
All thcsc works posc problcms oI dcmarcation. Mow is thc
postmodcrn to bc bcstpcrodzcd: Jo whatintcllcctual conhg-
uration docs t corrcspond: Vhat s thc appropratc rcsponsc
toit:
Timing
Jhc ccntral qucstonhcrc isthchrst - thcissucoIpcriodzation.
]amcson`s carlcst critc on thc IcIt had pointcd out a loosc
i ont in his constructon. ' !I postmodcrnsm was thc cultural
logc oI latc captalsm, should thcy not concidc Iarly closcly
n tmc: Yct Nandcl`s Late Capitalism, on which ]amcson
bascd hisconccptionoI a ncwstagc incapitalstdcvclopmcnt,
1 See Mike Davis, 'Urban Renaissance and the Spirit of Postmodernism', New Left
Review, No 151, May-June 1985, pp. 106-1 13.
78
AFTER- EFFECTS
datcd ts gcncral arrval Irom 1945 - whlc ]amcson put thc
cmcrgcncc oI thc postmodcrn n thc carly scvcntcs. [vcn I t
could bc argucd thatthc Iull rcalzaton oINandcl`s modcl dd
not comc ovcrnght, such a gap rcmancdtroublng. Callncos
and Marvcy, wrtng at vrtually thc samc tmc, drcw oppostc
conclusons. Marvcy,whosc carlcrwork The Limits of Capital
had outlncd thc most systcmatcand orginal NarxstthcoryoI
cconomc crscs, argucd that thc advcnt oI postmodcrnty,
rghtly locatcd towards thc bcgnnng oI thc scvcntcs, n Iact
rcflcctcd a contcmporancous brcak wth thc post-war modcl oI
captalst dcvclopmcnt. Vth thc rcccsson oI 1973, ordsm -
undcrmncd by ncrcascd ntcrnatonal compctton, Iallng cor-
poratc prohts and accclcratng nflaton - had plungcd nto a
long-dclaycd crss oIovcraccumulaton.
!n rcsponsc, a ncw rcgmc oI 'flcxblc accumulaton` had
cmcrgcd, as captal ncrcascd ts room Ior manocuvrc across thc
board. Jhc ncwpcrodsaw grcatcr f|cxblty oIlabour markcts
'tcmporary contracts, mmgrantand domcstc swcatng , man-
uIacturingproccsscs ' outsourcng oIplants, i ust-n-tmcproduc-
ton, commodty outputs 'batch consgnmcnts , and abovc all
oIdcrcgulatcdhnancalopcratons, nasnglcworldmarkctIor
moncy and crcdt. !t was ths rcstlcss, spcculatvc systcm that
was thc cxstcntal bass oI thc vatous lorms oI postmodcrn
culturc, whosc rcalty and novclty wcrc not to bc doubtcd - a
scnsbltyclosclyrclatcdtothc dcmatcralzaton oImoncy, thc
cphcmcralty oI Iashon, thc glut oI smulaton n thc ncw
cconomcs. ônc oIths amountcd to any Iundamcntal changc
n thc modc oI producton as such - lct alonc to a long-tcrm
solution oI thc prcssurcs oI ovcraccumulaton, whch had ti
not undcrgonc thc ncccssary purgc oI a massvc
oI captal. ôr, indccd, could f|cxblc accumulaton
dcscrbcd as unvcrsally domnant, morc typcally, t cOcxtstc
n mxcd attcrns wth oldcr ordst Iorms, and cvcn thc
Irom onc to thc othcr wcrc by no mcans always rrcvcrsiblc.
Vhat had crtcally altcrcd, howcvcr, was thc poston and
autonomy oI hnancal markcts wthn captalsm, outflankng
2
The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford 1990, pp. 121-197. The even keel of
this work is very impressive.
79
natonal govcrnmcnts, whch spclt systcmc nstablty oI an
unprcccdcntcdknd.
Callncos, onthc othcr hand, rcvcrscdths lnc oI argumcnt.
Vhlc t was truc thatglobal captal was now morc ntcgratcd
than cvcr bcIorc, and posscsscdncw dcgrccs oImoblty, ths n
no way addcd up to a ' brcak` nthc hstory oI captalsm. or
natonal statcsrctancdsubstantal powcrs oIrcgulaton, asthc
ronc succcss oI Rcagan`s mltarykcyncsansm nrcf|atngthc
world cconomy n thc cghtcs had shown. As Ior thc othcr
Icaturcs oI 'f|cxblc accumulaton`, thcy wcrc mostly cxaggcr-
atcd or mythcal. thc labour Iorcc was lcss scgmcntcd, batch
producton lcss wdcsprcad, thc scrvcc scctor lcss sgnhcant
than thcorcs oIpost-ordsm suggcstcd - i ust as ordsm tsclI
was an ovcrblown noton, proi cctng a homogcncous dom-
nancc oI standardzcd mass producton that had ncvcr cxstcd,
savc n a lmtcd numbcr oI consumcr durablc ndustrcs.
Smlarly, postmodcrnsm as a dstnctsctoIartstc practccs-
lct alonc a cultural domnant - was largcly a hgmcnt. \rtually
cvcry acsthctc dcvcc or Icaturc attrbutcd to postmodcrnsm -
bricolage oItradton, play wththcpopular, rcflcxvty, hybrd-
ty, pastchc, hguralty, dcccntrng oI thc subicct - could bc
Iound n modcrnsm. ô crtcal brcak was dsccrnblc hcrc
cthcr.
Vhat could bc obscrvcd was somcthng dIIcrcnt. namcly a
gradual dcgradaton oI modcrnsm tsclI, as it had bccomc
ncrcasngly commodhcd and ntcgratcd nto thc crcuts oI
post-war captal. Jhc sourccs oI ths dcclnc, howcvcr, wcrc to
bc traccd n thc hrst nstancc, not so much to largcr cconomc
changcs, or any mmancnt acsthctc logc, as morc drcctly to
thc poltcal hstory oI thc tmc. Mstorcally, modcrnsm had
rcachcd ts apogcc wth thc clustcr oI rcvolutonary avant-
gardcs bctwccnthcwars - constructvsm n Russa, cxprcsson-
sm and neue Sachlichkeit n Ccrmany, surrcalsm n rancc. !t
was thc vctory oI Staln and Mtlcr that hnshcd oII thcsc
movcmcnts. Analogously, postmodcrnsm - acsthctcally lttlc
morc than a mnortwst nthc downward spral oImodcrnsm,
though dcologcally oI much grcatcr sgnhcancc - should bc
sccnasa productoIthcpoltcaldcIcatoIthcradcalgcncraton
oIthclatcsxtcs. Rcvolutonaryhopcsdsappontcd, thscohort
80
AFTER- EFFECTS
had Iound compcnsaton n a cyncal hcdonsm that Iound
lavsh outlctnthc ovcrconsumpton boom oIthc cghtcs. 'Jhs
coni uncturc - thc prospcrty oI thc Vcstcrn ncw mddlc class
combncdwththc poltcal dsllusonmcnt oImany oIts most
artculatc mcmbcrs- provdcs thc contcxt Iorthc prolIcratng
talkoIpostmodcrnsm. ` `
Such contrastcd dagnoscs, rcachcd Irom common startng-
ponts, posc thc problcmoIstuatngthc postmodcrnwth somc
accuracy acutcly. !na skctch oIthcorgns oImodcrnsmnthc
[uropcan Belle Epoque, ! oncc suggcstcd that t was bcst
undcrstood as thc outcomc oI a hcld oI Iorcc trangulatcd by
thrcc coordnatcs. an cconomy and soccty stll only scm-
ndustral, n whch thc rulng ordcr rcmancd to a sgnhcant
cxtcnt agraran or arstocratc, a tcchnology oI dramatc nvcn-
tons, whosc mpact was stll Ircsh or ncpcnt, and an opcn
poltcal horzon, nwhch rcvolutonary uphcavals oI onc knd
or anothcr aganst thcprcvalng ordcrwcrc wdcly cxpcctcd or
Icarcd.' !n thc spacc so boundcd, a wdc varcty oI artstc
nnovatons could cxplodc - symbolsm, magsm, cxprcsson-
sm, cubsm, Iutursm, constructvsm. somc quarryngclasscal
mcmory or patrcan stylcs, othcrs drawn to a poctcs oI thc
ncw machncry, yct othcrs hrcd by vsons oI socal uphcaval,
butnonc atpcaccwththcmarkctasthcorganzngprncplcoI
a modcrn culturc - n that scnsc, vrtually wthout cxccpton
ant-bourgcos.
JhcrstVorldVar,dcstroyngthcancien regimes nRussa,
Austro-Mungary and Ccrmany, and wcakcnng landowncrs
clscwhcrc, modhcd but dd not ovcrturnths scttng. [uropcan
uppcr classcs and thcr train de vie wcnt on much as bcIorc,
advanccd Iorms oI ndustral organzaton and mass consu
ton- Cramsc`s dca oIordsm- rcmancdlargclyconhnc
thc \S, rcvoluton and countcr-rcvoluton battlcd Irom
\stula to thc [bro. !n suchcondtons, avant-gardc movcmcnts
and Iorms oI grcat vgour contnucd to cmcrgc - poi az n
3 Against Postmodernism, Cambridge 1989, p. 168.
4 'Modernity and Revolution', New Left Review, No 144, March-April 1984;
reprinted, with a postscript ( 1985), in A Zone of Engagement, London 1992,
pp. 25-55.
81
Russa, auhaus nCcrmany, surrcalsm nrancc. Jhccacsura
camcwththc SccondVorldVar,whoscoutcomcsmashcdthc
old agraran cltcs and thcr way oI lIc across most oI thc
Contncnt, nstallcd stablc captalst dcmocracy and standard-
zcd consumcr-durablcs n thc Vcst, and guttcd thc dcals oI
rcvoluton n thc [ast. Vth all thc Iorccs that had hstorcally
spurrcd t gonc, thc elan oI modcrnsm gavc out. !t had lvcd
Irom thc non-synchronous - what was past or Iuturc n thc
prcscnt - and dcd with thc arrval oIthc purcly contcmpora-
ncous. thc monotonc stcady-statc oI thc post-war Atlantc
ordcr. McnccIorward, art that stll would bc radcal was
routncly dcstncd Ior commcrcal ntcgraton or nsttutonal
coopton.
Nuchcouldbc sadoIthsrapdoutlnc,bywayoIcxpanson
or crtcsm, today. !t nvtcs morc gcographcal nuancc. Vhat
dctcrmncdthcgradcntoItcchnologcalcnthusasmnthccarly
Iorms oI modcrnsm: Vhy was rtansccmngly so barrcn oI
nnovatvcmovcmcnts - or wastaltogcthcr : Cansurrcalsm bc
rcgardcd as smply thc last n thc scrcs oI maior avant-gardcs
bctwccn thc wars, or dd t also conhgurc somcthng ncw:
Answcrsto qucstonslkcthcsc wouldhavctolookmorccloscly
at thc natonal spcchctcs oI thc dIIcrcnt culturcs oIthc tmc.
Schcmatcally, Ior cxamplc, onc could cnvsagc a spcctrum oI
dcal atttudcs to thc ncw mcchancal marvcls oI thc carly
twcntcth ccntury, varyng nvcrscly wth thc cxtcnt oI thcr
mplantaton. thctwomostndustrallybackwardpowcrsoIthc
contncnt, !taly and Russa, gcncratng thc most Icrvcntly tcch-
i)cst avant-gardcs, n thcr rcspcctvc Iutursms, whlc
Ccrmany, combnng advanccd ndustry n thc Vcst wth thc
rctrogradc landscapcoIthc[ast,wasspltbctwccncxprcssonst
loathng and auhaus woong oI Nctropols, rancc, on thc
othcr hand, wth ts pattcrn oI modcstly prospcrous pctty
producton n town and country,pcrmttcd a qurkcr synthcss
n surrcalsm, cntranccd prccscly by thc ntcrlacng oIncw and
old. As Ior rtan, thc Ialurc oI ts I|ckcrng modcrnst
mpulscs to cndurc was surcly rclatcd to thc abscncc oI any
maior nsurgcnt strand n thc labour movcmcnt. ut t was no
doubtalso a Iuncton oIcarlyndustralzaton, and thcgradual
dcvclopmcnt oI an ovcrwhclmngly urbanzcd but alrcady
82
AFTER- EFFECTS
tradton-bound economy, whose slowness acted as a buffer
aganst the shock of a new machne-age that galvanzed avant-
gardeselsewhere.
ut the more mportant lmts ofthe account retraced above
are to be found at the end ratherthan begnnng ofthe story.
]he cut-off pont proposed for modernsm after 1945 was
certanlytoo abrupt. Ieter Vollen`s hstoryamplydemonstrates
that. ]he legacy of the pre-war avant-gardes could not be
extngushedovernght,sncetnecessarlystll stood asnternal
model and memory, no matter how unfavourable the external
crcumstances for reproducng t. !n Amerca, abstract
expressonsm offered a pognant llustraton of the new stu-
aton. Iormally an exemplary modernst gesture, the most
radcal collectve break wth hguralty to date, the ew York
school went from garret to apotheoss at - comparatvely
speakng- lghtnngspeed, markng somethngqutenew nthe
hstory of pantng. ]hs was an avant-garde that became an
orthodoxy n ts own short lfe-span, captalzed as symbolc
nvestment by bg money and promulgated as deologcal value
by the state. Yet the Cold Var trumpetng of ths art by the
US!A had a pecular rony. Connexons wth surrealsm were
vtal n abstract expressonsm, and the poltcs of ts leadng
panters could hardly have been further from ther use as a
moral afhche for the Iree Vorld. Rothko was an anarchst,
Motherwell a socalst, and Iollock - n the prvate opnon of
Creenberg, hs greatest publc champon - nothng less than a
'goddamstalnstfromstartto hnsh` .`
!n Iurope, where the annexatonst logc ofthe post-war art
market was less overpowerng, and sgnhcant forces of resst-
ance tothe ColdVar system perssted nthe Vest, contnm
wth the nsurgent ams of the nter-war avant-gardes
much stronger. Surrealsm could stll trgger successve
conceved more or less m ts mage, as Vollen shows m
detaled reconstructon of the movement from CRA
lettrisme to the Stuatonst !nternatonal. lere, the heroic
5 See T. ]. Clark, 'In Defense of Abstract Expressionism', October, No 69, Summer
1994, p. 45.
6 Raiding the Icebox, pp. 135-150.
83
ambitionofthe historic avant-garde- the transhgurationofart
and politics alike - sprang to life once more. ut even before
the climax of I968, the union had come loose. ]he artistic
wings of Situationism were essentially a product ofthe periph
ery. enmark, lolland, elgium, Iiedmont, where the gallery
system was weak. ]he political head was centred in Irance,
where revolutionary militancy and the art market were both
much stronger, creating a held of suspicion within the !nter-
national of which the artists paid the price, in expulsion or
departure, condemning the S! in turn to the hazards, and
transience, of any overpoliticization. Another great adventure
ofthese years lasted longer. !n some ways strangely parallel in
traiectory, Codard`scinema moved towards steadily more radi-
cal forms - of narrative ellipse, torsion between sound and
image, didactic caption - in the same period, throwing off a
series ofnear-masterpieces, before culminating in a convulsive,
unsustainable bidforarevolutionary ascesis intheaftermathof
I968. Iater, Codard`s withdrawal to Switzerland might be
compared to ]orn`s refuges in Iiguria orenmark. a different
kind ofproductivity,once again ofthemargin.
]he quartercenturyafterthe end ofhostilities thus seems in
retrospect an inter-regnum, in which modernist energies were
notsubiecttosuddencancellation,butstillglowedintermittently
hereandthere, whereconditions allowed,withinaninhospitable
generalclimate.!twasnotuntiltheturnoftheseventiesthatthe
groundforanaltogethernewconhgurationwasprepared. !fwe
wantto hx theemergenceofapostmodernismmoreaccurately,
onewayofdoingsoisto lookatwhathadreplacedtheprincipal
determinants of modernism. ]ameson`s work, in fact, contains
pointerstomostoftherelevantchanges,whichwiththeslightest
ofrearrangements affordthe more precisefocus required. Iost-
modernism can be viewed as a cultural held triangulated, in its
turn, by three new historical coordinates. ]he hrst ofthese lies
in the fate ofthe ruling order itself. y the end ofthe Second
Vorld Var the powerof aristocratictradition had received its
quietus across continental Iurope. ut for another generation,
its traditional alter- rival and partner- persisted. Ve can still
speak ofthe bourgeoisie as a class, inthatmeaningoftheterm
inwhichMaxVebercould remarkwithpridethathe belonged
84
f
AFTER- EFFECTS
toit.]hati stosay,asocialforcewithitsownsenseofcollective
identity, characteristic moral codes and cultural habitus. !f we
wanted a single visual clip of this world, it was a scene where
men stillworehats. ]heUnited States had its versionin the old
moneyoftheIasternestablishment.
Schumpeter always argued that capitalism, as an intrinsically
amoral economic system driven by the pursuit of proht, dissol
ventofallbarrierstomarketcalculation, dependedcritically on
pre-capitalist - in essence nobiliary - values and manners to
holdittogetheras social andpoliticalorder.utthisaristocratic
'under-girding`, as he put it, was typically reinforced by a
secondary structure of support, in bourgeois milieux conhdent
of the moral dignity oftheir own calling. subi ectively closer to
portraits by Mann than Ilaubert. !n the epoch ofthe Marshall
Ilan and the genesis of the Iuropean Community, this world
livedon.!nthepoliticalrealm,substantialhgureslikeAdenauer,
e Casperi, Monnet embodied thispersistence- theirpolitical
relationshiptoChurchilloreCaulle,grandeesfromaseigneur
ialpast, asifanafter-imageofan originalcompactthatsocially
was no longer valid. ut, as itturned out, thetwo braces inthe
older structure were more interdependent than they once had
seemed.
Iorwithinthe span ofanothertwenty years, the bourgeoisie
too - inanystrictsense,asaclasspossessedofself-consciousness
and morale - was all but extinct. lere and there, pockets ofa
traditional bourgeois setting can still be found in provincial
cities of Iurope, and perhaps in certain regions of orth
America, typicallypreserved byreligious piety. family networks
in the Veneto or asque lands, conservative notables in thc
ordelais, parts of the Cerman Mittelstand, and s on. ut
and large, the bourgeoisie as audelaire or Marx, !bscn
Rimbaud, Crosz or recht - or even Sartre or `lara -
it, L a thing of the past. m place of that solid amphitheatre
an aquarium oflloating, evanescentforms - the proi ectors and
managers, auditors andi anitors, administratorsand speculators
ofcontemporary capital. functions ofa monetary universe that
knowsnosocialhxitiesorstable identities.
ot that inter-generational mobility has greatly increased, if
atall,intherichersocietiesofthepost-warworld. ]heseremain
85
THE ORI GI NS OF POS TMODERNI TY
asobi ectvely strathed asever. uttheculturalandpsycholog-
cal markers of poston have become steadly more eroded
amongthosewhoenioywealthorpower.AgnellorVallenberg
now evoke a dstant past, n a tme whose typcal masks are
Mlken or Cates. Irom the seventes onwards, the leadng
personnel of the maior states was moultng too - xon,
]anaka, Crax were among the new plumes. More wdely, n
the publc sphere democratzaton of manners and dsnhbton
of mores advanced together. Ior long, socologsts had debated
the embourgeoisement ofthe workng-class nthe Vest- never
a very happy term fot the processes at ssue. y the nnetes,
however, the more strkng phenomenon was a general encan
aillement ofthepossessng classes - ast were. starletprncesses
and sleazeball presdents, beds for rentn the ofhcal resdence
and brbes for kller ads, dsneyhcaton ofprotocols and taran-
tnzaton of practces, the avd corteges of the nocturnal
underpass or the gubernatoral troop. !n scenes lke these les
muchofthesocalbackdropofthepostmodern.
Ior what ths landscape means s that two condtons of
modernsm havevanshedutterly.]heresnolongeranyvestge
of an academcst establshment aganstwhch an advanced art
could pt tself. lstorcally, the conventons of academc art
were always closely ted, not only to the self-representatons of
ttled orupperclasses, butalso tothesensbltyandpretensons
of tradtonal mddle classes below them. Vth the passng of
the bourgeos world, ths aesthetc fol s mssng. ]he ttle and
ste ofthemostdelberatelylurdbrat-packshownrtansays
everythng. Sensation care of the Royal Academy. Smlarly,
modernsm tapped volent energes ofrevolt aganst the ofhcal
moralty of the tme - standards of represson and hypocrsy
notorously stgmatzed, wth reason, as spechcally bourgeos.
]he i ettsonng of any real pretence of upholdng these stan
dards, wdely vsble from the eghtes onwards, could not but
affectthe stuaton ofoppostonal art. once bourgeosmoralty
n thetradtonal senses over,tsasfan amplherssuddenly
cut off. Modernsm, nom ts earlest orgns n audelare or
Ilaubert onwards, vrtually dehned tself as 'ant-bourgeos` .
Iostmodernsm swhat occurs when, wthout any vctory, that
adversarysgone.
86
!
':
AFTER- EFFECTS
A second condton can be traced to the evoluton of tech
nology. Modernsmwasowered by theexctementofthegreat
cluster of new nventons that transformed urban lfe n the
early years ofthe century. the lner, the rado, the cnema, the
skyscraper, the automoble, the aeroplane, and by the abstract
concepton of dynamc machnofacture behnd them. ]hese
provded the mages and settngs for much ofthe most orgnal
art of the perod, and gave all of t an encompassng sense of
rapd change. ]he nter-war perod rehned and extended the
key technologes of the modernst take-off wth the arrval of
the llyng boat, the roadster, sound and colour on screen, the
autogyro, but dd not add sgnhcantly to ther lst. Clamour
and speed became, even more than before, the domnant notes
n the perceptual regster. !t was the experence of the Second
VorldVar that abruptlychanged ths whole Gestalt. Scenthc
progress now for the hrst tme assumed unmstakeably menac
ng shapes, as constant techncal mprovement unleashed ever
more powerful nstruments ofdestructon and death, termnat
ng n demonstratve nuclear explosons. Another and nhntely
vaster knd ofmachnery, far beyond the range ofdaly exper
ence,yetcastngabalefulshadowovert,had arrved.
After these glmpses of apocalypse, the post-war boom
changed the countenance of the mechancal n more close-at
hand and thorough-gong ways. Varproducton, above all - f
not only - nAmerca, hadconvertedtechnologcal nnovaton
nto a permanent prncple of ndustral output, moblzng
research budgets and desgn teams for mltary competton.
Vth peace-tme reconstructon and the long post-war boom,
mass producton of standardzed goods ntegrated the samc
dynamc. ]he result was an ndustral verson of Vebct
parabola of the sprtual. as the llow of the new became a
very contnuty a streamof the same, the charsma oftech
was transformed nto routne, and lost ts magnetc powers
art. !n part too ths banalzaton rellected the absence, amdsta
ceaseless plethora of mprovements, of any decsve cluster of
nventonscomparabletothoseoftheerabeforetheIrstVorld
Var. Ior a whole perod the exctement ofthe modern tactly
dwndled,wthoutmuch alteratonofts orgnal vsualheld.
]he development that changed everythng was televson.
87
]hs was the hrst technologcal advance of world-hstorcal
moment n the post-war epoch. Vth t, a qualtatve iump n
the power of mass communcatons had arrved. Rado had
alreadyproved, nthenter-warandwar-tmeyears, a far more
potent nstrument of socal capture than prnt. not merely by
reason of ts lesser demands on educatonal qualhcaton, or
greater mmedacy of recepton, but above all because of ts
temporal reach. Round-the-clock broadcastng created poten
tallypermanentlsteners audenceswhosewakngandhearng
hours could atthelmtbe one. ]hseffectwas onlypossble, of
course, because of the dssocaton of the ear from the eye,
whch meant that so many actvtes - eatng, workng, travel-
lng, relaxng could be performed wth the rado n the
background. ]he capacty of televson to command the atten
ton ofts 'audences` s mmeasurably greater, becausethey are
not smply such. the eye s caught before the ear s cocked.
Vhat the new medum brought was a combnaton of
undreamt-of power. the contnuous avalablty of rado wth
an equvalent of the perceptual monopoly of prnt, whch
excludes other forms of attenton by the reader. ]he saturaton
ofthemagnarysofanotherorder.
Irst marketed n thehftes, televson dd not acqure mai or
salence tll the early sxtes. ut so long as ts screen was only
black-and-whte, the medum- whatever ts other advantages-
retaned a mark of nferorty, as f t were techncally stll a
laggard stepchld of the cnema. ]he true moment of ts
ascendancy dd not come untl the arrval of colour televson,
whch hrst became general n the Vest n the early seventes,
trggerng a crss n the hlm ndustry whose box-ofhce effects
are stllwth us. !ftheres any sngle technologcalwatershed of
the postmodern, t les here. !f we compare the settng t has
createdtothe openng ofthecentury, thedfference can beput
qute smply. nce, n i ublaton or alarm, modernsm was
sezedby magesofmachnery, now, postmodernsm was sway
toamachneryofmages.!nthemselves,thetelevsonsetorthe
computer termnal, wth whch t wll eventually merge, are
pecularly blank obi ects - nullzones ofthedomestc or bureau
cratcnteror that are not i ust napt as 'conductors ofpsychc
energy`, but tend to neutralze t. ]ameson has put ths wth
8 8
AFTER- EFFECTS
characterstc force. ']hese new machnes can be dstngushed
from the older futurst cons n two related ways. they are all
sources of reproducton rather than producton" andthey are
no longersculpturalsoldsn space. ]he housng ofa computer
scarcely embodes or manfests ts pecular energes nthe same
waythatawngshapeoraslantedsmokestackdo` .'
nthe other hand, mage-resstant themselves, the machnes
pour out a torrent of mages, wth whose volume no art can
compete. ]he decsve techncalenvronmentofthepostmodern
s consttuted by ths 'agara of vsual gabble` . Snce the
seventes, the spread of second-order devces and postonngs
n somuchaesthetcpractcescomprehensble onlyntermsof
ths prmary realty. ut the latter, of course, s not smply a
wave of mages, but also - and above all - of messages.
Marnett or ]atln could erect andeologyoutofthemechan
cal, but most of the machnes themselves sad lttle. ]he new
apparatuses, by contrast, are perpetual emoton machnes,
transmttng dscourses that are wall-to-wall deology, n the
strong sense of the term. ]he ntellectual atmosphere of post
modernsm, as doxaratherthan art, drawsmanyoftsmpulses
fromthepressure ofthssphere. Iorthepostmodernsthstoo.
anndexofcrtcalchangentherelatonshpbetweenadvanced
technologyandthepopularmagnary.
A thrdcoordnate ofthenew stuatonlay, ofcourse, nthe
poltcal changes of the tme. ]he onset ofthe Cold Var, after
I9+7, had frozen strategc boundares and chlled all nsurgent
hopes n Iurope. !n Amerca, the labour movement was neu-
tered and the lefthounded. Iost-war stablzatonwas followed
by the fastest perod of nternatonal growth n the hstory ot
captalsm. ]he Atlantc order of the hftes, proclamng the
of deology, seemed to consgn the poltcal world of
twentes and thrtes to a remote past. ]he wnd of
n whch the avant-gardes had once skmmed, was gone. 1ypi
cally, t was n ths perod, when most ofthe great experments

seemed over, that the noton of 'modernsm` acqured currencv
7 Signatures of the Visible, New York 1992, p. 61; likewise Postmodernism,
pp. 36-37.
8 The phrase is Robert Hughes's: Nothing ifNot Critical, New York 1 990, p. 14.
89
as a comprehensve term, to demarcate a canon of classcal
workstowhchcontemporarycrtcsnowlooked back.
Yettheoutwardappearanceofacompleteclosureofpoltcal
horzons n theVestwas stll, fora whole perod, deceptve. !n
contnental Iurope, mass Communst partesnIranceand!taly
and undergrounds m Span, Iortugal and Creece - remaned
unreconcled to the exstng order, no matter how moderate
thertactcs, therveryexstenceactng as 'a mnemonc devce,
as t were, holdng the place n the pages of hstory` for the
revval ofmore radcal aspratons. !nthe USSR, thepassng of
Staln unleashed processes ofreform that seemed n the era of
Khrushchev to be movng towards a less repressve and more
nternatonalstSovetmodel - onecommttedtoassstngrather
than frustratng nsurgent movements abroad. !n the ]hrd
Vorld, decolonzaton was shakng loose ma ior bastons of
mperalrule,na seres ofrevolutonaryupheavals - !ndochna,
Igypt, Algera, Cuba, Angola - that brought ndependence to
muchwder areas. !nChna,theestablshedbureaucracybecame
the target of a movement orchestrated by Mao, nvokng the
dealsoftheIarsCommune.
Suchwasthesettng,wthtsmxtureofrealtesandllusons,
for the sudden kndlng of explosve revolutonary energes
among educated youth of the advanced captalst countres -
not merely n Irance, Cermany or !taly, but equally n the
Unted States or ]apan - n the sxtes. ]he wave of student
revoltwasrapdly, fmoreselectvely,followed bylabour unrest
- mostfamously, thegeneralstrkeofMay-]une I968nIrance,
the lot Autumn of !taly n I969 and ts protracted sequels,
the mners` strkes of I97J-7+ n rtan. !n ths great tur
bulence, echoes from the Iuropean past ' Iourer, lanqu,
Iuxemburg. not to speak of Marx hmself , the ]hrd Vorld
present ' Cuevara, lo Ch Mnh, Cabral and the Communst
future 'the 'cultural revoluton` envsaged by Ienn or Mao
crss-crossed to create a poltcal ferment not seen snce the
twentes. !n these years too, vtal struts of the tradtonal
moral order, regulatng the relatons between generatons and
sexes,startedtogveway.o-one has retraced the parabola of
9 Marxism and Form, p. 273.
90
AFTER- EFFECTS
that
tme better than ]ameson, n hs essay 'Ierodzng the
S
xtes`
1
Qute naturally, t sawlvelyavant-gardellamesspurt
up
agam.
ut ths coni uncture proved to be a cltmacteric. Vithin
another few years, all the sgns were reversed as, one by one,
the poltcal dreams of the sxtes were snuffed out. ]he May
Revolt n Irance was absorbed vrtually wthout trace n the
poltcal doldrums ofthe seventes. ]he Czechoslovak Sprng
the boldestofall Communst reform experments - was crushed
by the armes ofthe VarsawIact. !n Iatn Amerca, guerrllas
nspred or led by Cuba were stamped out. !n Chna, the
Cultural Revoluton sowed terror rather than lberaton. !nthe
- Sovet Unon, the long rezhnevte declne set n. ]o the Vest,
here andthere labour unrest perssted, but bythe second halfof
the decade the tde of mltancy had ebbed. Callncos and
Iagletonarerghtto stress mmedatesourcesofpostmodernsm
n the experence of defeat. ut these setbacks were only a
preambletomore decsve checkmatesahead.
!ntheeghtes,avctorousRghtpassedovertotheoffensve.
!n the Anglo-Saxon world the Reagan and ]hatcher regmes,
after llattenng the labour movement, rolled back regulaton
and redstrbuton. Spreadng from rtan to the Contnent,
prvatzaton ofthe publc sector, cuts n socal expendture and
hghlevels ofunemploymentcreated a new norm ofneo-lberal
development, eventually mplemented by partes ofthe Ieft no
less than the Rght. y the end of the decade, the post-war
mssonofsocal-democracynVesternIurope - awelfarestate
based on full employment and unversal provson - had been
largely abandoned by the Socalst !nternatonal. !n Iastern
Iurope and the SovetUnon, Communsm- unableto
economcally abroad or democratze poltcally at home -
oblterated altogether. !n the ]hrd Vorld, states born
natonal lberaton movements were everywhere trappednnev
forms of nternatonal subordnaton, unable to escape thc
constrants of global hnancal markets and ther nsttutons ot
supervsion.
]he unversal trumph of captal sgnhes more than i ust a
lU
The Ideologies of Theor, Vol 2, pp. 178-208.
91
dcIcat Ior all thosc Iorccs oncc arraycd aganst t, although
t s also that. Its dccpcr scnsc lcs n thc canccllaton oI polt-
cal altcrnatvcs. Nodcrnty comcs to an cnd, as ]amcson
obscrvcs, whcn t loscs any antonym. Jhc possblty oI othcr
socal ordcrs was an csscntal horzon oImodcrnsm. nccthat
vanshcs, somcthng lkc postmodcrnsm s n placc. Jhs s thc
unspokcn momcnt oI truth n Iyotard`s orgnal constructon.
Mow, thcn, should thc coni uncturc oI thc postmodcrn bc
summcd up: A capsulc comparson wth modcrnsmmghtrun.
postmodrnsm cn rgcd Irom thnsL1ltionssc
rc chno1o) andc
poics ut, oIcoursc, thcsc coordnatcs wcrc thcmsclvcs only
si ns oI a largcr changc that supcrvcncd wth thc

scvcntcs.
Captalsm as a wholc cntcrcd a ncw hstorcal phasc, wth
thc suddcn Iadc-out oI thc post-war boom. Jhc undcrlyng
causc oI thc long downswng, wth ts much slowcr ratcs oI
growth and hghcr ratcs oI ncqualty, was thc ntcnshcaton
oI ntcrnatonal compctton, rclcntlcssly Iorcng down ratcs oI
proht and so thcsprngsoInvcstmcnt, n a global cconomyno
longcr dvsblc nto rclatvcly shcltcrcd natonal spaccs. Jhs
was thc hard mcanng oI thc arrval oI thc multnatonal
captalsm I|aggcd by ]amcson. Jhc rcsponsc oI thc systcm to
thc crss ycldcd thc conhguraton oI thc cghtcs. thc battcr-
ng down oI labour n corc rcgons, outsourcng oI plants to
chcap wagc locatons n thc pcrphcry, dsplaccmcnt oI nvcst-
mcnt nto scrvccs and communcatons, cxpanson oI mltary
cxpcndturc, and vcrtgnous rsc n thc rclatvc wcght oI
hnancal spcculaton at thc cxpcnsc oI nnovatvc producto.
In thcsc ngrcdcnts oIthc Rcagan rccovcry, all thc dctcroratcd
clcmcnts oI thc postmodcrn camc togcthcr. unbrdlcd nouveau
riche dsplay, tclcprompt statccraIt, boll-wccvl conscnsus. It
was thc cuphora oI ths coni uncturc that gcncratcd, wth
punctual tmng, thc hrst rcal llumnaton oI postmodcrnsm.
Jhc cconomc turnng-pont oI thc Rcagan rcsdcncy camc
on I2 August I982, whcn thc Amcrcan stock-markct took
oII - thc start oI thc Icvcrsh bull-run that cndcd thc Cartcr
rcccssion. Jhrcc months latcr, ]amcson rosc to addrcss thc
Vhtncy.
92
AFTER- EFFECTS
Polarities
Ifsuch may have been the condtons of the postmodern, what
can be sad of ts contours: lstorcally modernsm was essen
tally a post facto category, unfyng after the event a wde
varety of expermental forms and movements, whose own
namesforthemselvesknewnothng oft. ycontrast, postmod
ernsm was much closer to an ex ante noton, a concepton
germnatedn advance ofthe artstcpractcestcametodepct.
ot that t has ever been sgnhcantlyadopted bypracttoners
themselves, anymorethan was modernsm n ts 'retrospectve
heyday. ut there s stll a maior dfference n the respectve
weght of the terms. ]he tme of the modern was that of the
unrepeatable genus - the 'hgh modernsm` of Iroust, ]oyce,
Kafka, Ilot, or the ntransgent vanguard - the collectve
movements of Symbolsm, Iutursm, Ixpressonsm, Construc-
tvsm, Surrealsm. ]hs was a world of sharp demarcatons,
whose fronters were staked out by the nstrument of the
manfesto. declaratons ofaesthetcdenttypecularnot only to
the avant-gardes, but also n more oblque and sublmated style
characterstc of wrters lke Iroust or Ilot, that separated the
electveground oftheartstfromtheterrains vagues beyond.
]hspatternsmssngnthepostmodern. Sncethe seventes,
the very dea of an avant-garde, or of ndvdual genus, has
fallen under suspcon. Combatve, collectve movements of
nnovaton have become steadly fewer, and the badge of a
novel, self-conscous 'sm` ever rarer. Ior the unverse of the
postmodern s not one of delmtaton, but ntermxture -
celebratng the cross-over, the hybrd, the pot-pourr. In h
clmate,themanfesto becomes outdated, a relc ofanass
pursm at varance wth the sprt ofthe age. In the asenc t
any system of self-desgnatons nternal to the held of a
practces themselves, however, the external unher ofpostmod
ernsm has acqured a contemporary salence modernsm tscII
never had, as a comprehensve rubrc for them all. ]he gap
between nameandtmehasclosed.
]hs s not to say thatthere was no dscrepancy at all. ]he
hstory ofthe dea of the postmodern, as we have seen, starts
well before the arrval of anythng that would readly be
93
denthed as a form of the postmodern today. or does the
order ofts theorzaton correspond to the order oftsphenom
enal appearance. ]he orgns of the noton of postmodernsm
were lterary, andtsproiectonto fame as a stylewasarchtec
tural. ut long before there were novels or buldngs that
answered to standard descrptons ofthe postmodern, vrtually
all ts trats had surfaced n pantng. Snce the elle Ipoque,
ths had usually been the most senstve sesmograph of wder
cultural changes. Ior pantng s set apart among the arts by a
dstnctve combnaton of features, that amount to a specal
statute. nthe onehand, nthe scale ofresourcesrequredasa
practce, ts costs of producton are far the lowest 'even sculp
tors use more expensve materals - a mere mnmum ofpant
and canvas, wthn reach of the most ndgent producer. y
comparson,thecaptalsums neededforarchtecture orhlmare
enormous, whlewrtng orcomposngnormallydemandsqute
szeable outlays to reach publcaton or performance. Another
way of puttng ths s smply to note that the panter s n
prncple the only fully ndependent producer, who as a rule
needs nofurtherntermedatontorealze aworkofart.
n the other hand - and n dramatccontrast - the market
for pantngs nvolves potentally the hghestrates ofreturn on
ntal nvestmeni of any of the arts. Snce the Second Vorld
Var, the gallery system and aucton room have steadly esca-
latedvalues,towardsastronomchguresnthe top range. Vhat
s pecular about the art market, of course, and explans these
dzzyng prces, s ts speculatve character. lere works can be
bought and sold as pure commodtes n a futures market, for
proht to come. ]he two opposte sdes of the stuaton of
pantng are, of course, nter-related. A pcture s cheap to
produce, because tnvolvesnotechnquesofreproducton - no
crane or steel, no camera or studo, no orchestra, no prntng
press. ut precsely forthatreason, aswhats non-reproducble
- that s. unque - t can become ncommensurately valuable.
]hsparadoxsi onedbyanotherwthnthepractceofpantng
tself. Inno other artsthe barrertoformalnnovatonsolow.
]he constrants of verbal ntellgblty, let alone the laws of
engneerng, are far more rgd than the habts ofthe eye. Iven
musc, dependent on specalzed sklls ofthe ear, s less free, as
94
AFTER- EFFECTS
the nhntely smaller audence for modernst experment nthe
medumofsoundmakesclear.
It s thus no accdentthatpantng started to breakwththe
conventons of representaton well before any other art, even
poetry, and has wtnessed far the largest number of formal
revolutons snce. In front of the canvas, the panter enioys an
ndvdual freedom wthout precse counterpart. Yet, far from
beng the pursut par excellence of soltares, pantng has been
obi ectvely the most collaboratve of modern arts. In no other
do the terms 'school` and 'movement` - n the strong sense of
mutuallearnngandcommonpurpose- recur sofrequently and
actvely. rgnally, tranng n the academy or studo was no
doubt crtcalfor ths. ut perhaps too, at some deeper level,
theverylbertyofpantng, nts unnervng space ofnventon,
has needed the compensaton of a dstnctve socablty. At all
events, panters have typcally consorted wth each other as
wrters or muscans have rarely done, and n ther nteracton
have furnshed much the clearest seres ofstylstc breaks nthe
generalhstoryofmodernsm.
]hesefeatures markedpantngoutnadvanceaslkelyto be
the prvleged stefor a transton to the postmodern. ]he last
maior school of the modern, abstract expressonsm, had been
thehrstto hta zenth of current success. ut what the market
gave, ttook away. AsCreenbergnoted. 'Inthe sprng of I962
there came the suddencollapse, market-wse and publcty-wse,
of Abstract Ixpressonsm as a collectve manfestaton` - a
dcbJcle 'touched off by the long stock-market declne of the
wnter and sprng of I962, whch had nothng to do wth art
ntrnscally` . ' ' Sxmonths later, ew Yorksawthetrumph
Iop Artnthe fall. rgnally, thenewstyle had strong||
a radcal past. Rauschenberg had taught under Albers
lsonatlack Mountan, andenioyedclosetes wth
and Cage,]ohns was ntally haled asa neo-ada. Iascnation
wththemachne-madedalyenvronmentwasareturntooneot
the oldest avant-garde nterests. ut by the sxtes, ths already
appeared as an mpulse wth a dfference. Iew real machnes
11 Clement Greenberg, The Collected Essays and Criticism, Vol 4, Chicago 1 993,
pp. 215, 1 79.
95
hgured n ths pantng, though the exceptons - Rosenqust`s
sleek nacelle of death- are suggestve. ]he characterstc cons
ofIop Artwere no longer mechancal obi ects themselves, but
ther commercal facsmles. ]hs art of cartoon-strps, brand-
names, pn-ups, glazed banners and blurred dols suppled, as
avdAntnremarkedofVarholn I66, 'aseresofmages of
mages`.' Ctng the phrase two years later, Ieo Stenberg was
perhapsthehrstto dubthspantngpostmodernst.
Vththe laterVarhol, ndeed, afullpostmodernhasunques-
tonably arrved. nonchalant crossng of forms - graphcs,
pantng, photography, hlm, i ournalsm, popular musc, calcu-
lated embrace ofthemarket,helotropcbendngtowards meda
and power. lere the curve deplored by lassan, from a dsc-
plne of slence to a badnage of the dead-pan, was vrtually
traced wthn a snglestyle- even so, notwthout all subversve
effect. utfIopArtoffers one parabola ofthe postmodern, as
t moved towards an aesthetcoftlrtaton, the movements that
succeeded t took a more unconpromsng orentaton. Mn-
malsm, launched n I65-66, dehed any easy appeal to the
eye, not by a mxngofforms but by undermnng the dstnc-
tons between them. intally, wth the producton of obi ects
that were nether pantng nor sculpture ']udd , then wth the
mgraton of sculpture towards landscape or archtecture
' Smthson, Morrs . lere a characterstc modernst attack on
perceptual conventons was radcalzed n two drectons, as
spatal constructs were rendered temporal experences, and
nsttutonaldsplaysfrustratedbyste-bndng.
Conceptualsm,follownghard onthe heels ofMnmalsm
ts hrst artculatons came around I67 - wentfurther, dsman-
tlng the artstc obiect tself by nterrogaton of the codes
consttutng t as such. Concdngwth the heght ofthe ant-
war movement and thewave of urbanuprsngsnAmerca at
theendofthe sxtes, conceptualsm wasmuchmorepoltcaln
ntenton, moblzngtext aganst mage for resstance not only
1?
'The consequence of a series of regressions from some initial image of the real
world': 'Warhol: the Silver Tenement', Artnews, Summer 1966, p. 58. Steinberg
discussed this passage in Other Criteria, New York 1 972, p. 91, where he
characterized the 'all-purpose picture plane' of Rauschenberg as the basis of a 'post
Modernist painting'.
96
I
AFTER- EFFECTS
to tradtonal deologes of the aesthetc n the narrow sense,
butalsoto thecontemporarycultureofthespectacleatlarge. !t
was also far more nternatonal - Amerca enioyng a bref
prorty, but no hegemony, as varants ofconceptual art arose
ndependently all over the world, from ]apan or Australa to
IasternIuropeor IatnAmerca. '`!nths sense, conceptualsm
could be consdered the lrst global avant-garde. the momentat
whch the hre-curtans ofmodern euro-amercan- artparted,
to reveal the stage of the postmodern. ut conceptualsm was
ths n another sense too. ]he formalst canvas was not i ust
dsplacedbyunclasshableobi ects, eludng the system ofthe hne
arts. Iantng tself was deposed as the acme of the vsual, and
volatlzed ntootherforms. Ahead lay theemergence ofnstal-
laton art. ]he pctoral s stll suspended n the after-shock of
thsupheaval.
]he break between the modern and postmodern thus not
only came earler n pantng or sculpture than n any other
medum, but was more drastc - a radcal dsturbance of the
nature of the arts themselves. !t s thus no surprse that t was
precsely ths area thatgave rsetothe mostvaultng theores of
the destny of the aesthetc. !n 1 983, the Cerman art hstoran
lans eltng publshed Das Ende der Kunstgeschichte?; a year
later, the Amercan phlosopher Arthur anto hs essay ']he
eath of Art`.'' ]he close convergence of ther themes has
foundfurther expressonn eltng`s enlarged second edtonof
hswork,Eine Revision nach zehn ]ahren ( 1995) , whchdrops
the queston-mark n the hrst edton, and anto`s After the
End of Art ( 1997) .
eltng`s orgnalthess took the form ofa double attack: on .

13 The best account of the origins and effects of the movement is Peter ||
'Global Conceptualism' (forthcoming) . For a critique of its upshot, see Benjaml
n
;
s

Buchloh's alternative version, 'Conceptual Art 1962-1969: from the Aesthetics of
Administration to the Critique of Institutions', October, No 55, Winter 1990;
pp. 105-143, which taxes conceptualism with a 'purging of image and skill, memory
and vision' that paradoxically contributed to a reinstatement of the very 'specular
regime' it sought to void. This argument is far from over.
14 Dan to's text formed the 'lead essay' in the symposium edited by Beryl Lang, The
Death of Art, New York 1984: pp. 5-35 - the remainder composed of responses to
it.
97
the regulatve 'deal notons of art` that had nformed pro
fessonal art hstory snce legel, but whose orgns went back
to Vasar, and on avant-gardeconceptons ofcontnuous 'pro-
gress` n modern art. ]hese two dscourses, he argued, had
always been dsioned, snce arthstorans wth the rarest of
exceptons- had never had much to say about the art of ther
tme, whle the avant-gardes tended to reiectthe artofthe past
en bloc anyway. ut both werehstorcal mysthcatons. ]here
was nether a untary essence nor an unfoldng logc n art,
whch not only assumed wdely dverse forms, but fulhlled
radcally dfferentfunctons, n the varous socetes and epochs
ofhumanhstory.
Inthe Vest,the domnance ofeasel pantng dated onlyfrom
the Renassance, and was now over. Amd the dsntegratonof
ts tradtonal genres, t was now legtmate to ask whether
Vestern art had not reached the knd of exhauston n whch
the classcal art-forms of Iast Asa were often on ther home
ground felt to have come to an end. At all events, t was clear
that no coherent 'hstory of art` - that s, ts Vestern varants,
snce a unversal hstory had never been on offer - was any
longer possble, only dscrete enqures nto partcular epsodes
ofthe past, andthattherecould be no suchthngas a constant
'work of art` as a sngular phenomenon, susceptble of a
unversally vald act of nterpretaton. In due course, eltng
proceeded to a volumnous llustraton of hs argument nBild
und Kult ( 1 990) , astudyofdevotonalrepresentatonsfromlate
Antquty to the end of the Mddle Ages, tracng 'a hstory of
themagebeforetheera ofart`.
Vhenhe came to revew hscasenthemd-nnetes, eltng
no longer had any doubt that art hstory as once understood
was hnshed. ls attenton now turned to the fate of art tself.
nce, art was understood as an mage of realty, ofwhch art
hstory furnshed the frame. In the contemporary epoch, how
ever, arthadescaped tsframe.]radtonaldehntons couldno
longer enclose t, as new forms and practces prolferated, not
merelytakngmass meda asther materals, butoftendelvered
by the electronc meda themselves or even by fashon, as
stylstc rvals ofwhat remaned of the beaux arts. ]he vsual
practces of ths postmodern scene had to be explored n the
98
AFTER- EFFECTS
same ethnographc sprtaspre-moderncons, wthoutcommt-
ment to any scence of the beautful appearance. In the nne
teenth century legel had declared the end of art, and at the
same stroke founded a new dscourse of art hstory. ]oday, for
eltng, we observe the end of a lnear art hstory, as art takes
leave of ts dehntons. ]he result s the opposte of a closure.
anunprecedentedandwelcomeopennessmarksthetme.
anto arrves at the same afhrmaton, by a slghtly - albet
pquantly - dfferent route. lere the 'end of art` s more
phlosophcally announced, as the collapse of all master
narratves thatlentthedsparateworksofthepastacumulatve
meanng. ut such nvocaton ofIyotard by no means sgnhes
smlarty of deducton. ]he narratve whose death anto
wshes to celebrate s Creenberg`s account of the dynamc of
modern pantng, movng by successve purges beyond hgura
ton, depth, mpastotosheerllatnessandcolour. Itsfuneralwas
Iop Art,whchn one varantor anotherunexpectedly restored
vrtually everythng Creenberg had declared spent. Ior anto,
Iop Art marked the entry of pantng nto a 'post-hstorcal`
lberty, nwhchanythng vsble could become a work ofart -
a moment of whch Varhol`s rllo ox could stand as the
epphany. Ior Iop Art was not smply a salutary 'adoraton of
the commonplace` , after the eltst metaphyscs of abstract
expressonsm 'wth ts suspectlnks to surrealsm . It was also
a demonstraton - here the connexon wth uchamp was
essental - that 'the aesthetc s not n fact an essental or
dehnngpropertyofart`.Sncetherewasnolongeranyprescrp
tve model ofart, a candy barcouldbeas acceptable a workoI
art, fsoproposed, asanyother. '`
]hs condton of 'perfect artstc freedom`, n whch
thng s permtted` , dd not, however, contradct legel`s
thetic but onthecontraryrealzedt. Ior'theendofart
n the comng to awareness of the true phlosophcal nature
art` - that s, art passes over nto phlosophy ' as legel sad t
15 After the End of Art, Princeton 1997, pp. 1 12, 1 85: 'A candy bar that is a work
of art need not be some especially good candy bar. It just has to be a candy bar
produced with the intention that it be art. One can still eat it since its edibility is
consistent with its being art'.
99
must atthe momentatwhch onlyanntellectual decsoncan
determnewhatsorsnotart.]hssanend-statewhchanto
explctly assocateswth that other legelanprospect, the end
ofhstory as such, as reworked by Koieve. !fthe latterhas not
necessarly yet been reached, the former gves us a happy
prevson of t. 'lowwonderful t would beto beleve that the
pluralstc art world of the hstorcal present s a harbnger of
poltcal thngs to come| `
eltng`s constructon - ths s ts

prncpalcontrastwthanto`s - dspatches rather than appeals
to legel. Yet t strkes a very smlar note, at precsely ths
pont, where the theme ofa post-hstorcal condton transmt
ted by lenr e Manto Cehlen, from the alternatve source of
Cournot, recurs at the same iuncton. ']he Posthistoire of
artsts, ! want to argue, started earler and has unfolded more
creatvelythanthePosthistoire ofhstorcalthnkers`.
]he ntellectual fraglty of these nterlockng arguments s
evdent enough. ]he equaton of pre-modern cons wth post-
modern smulacra, as art before and after art, nvolves an
obvousparalogsm- sncenthehrstcase obi ects areendowed
retrospectvely wth aesthetc status, whle n the second they
are expressly dened t. Vhat qualhes, then, the latter as art at
all : Ior anto, the answer s essentally the hat of the artst.
]he dfference betweenthe commodty nthesupermarketand
tsreproductonnthemuseumlesnVarhol`sdebonargesture
tself. !t would be dfhcult to magne a phlosophy ofart that
was, n substance, less legelan. ]he real nspraton here s
closer to Ichte. theego postng whatever world t wlls. ]hs
paroxysm of subiectve dealsm s foregn to eltng, who
proceeds wth a more cautous anthropologcal step. ut
common to both theorsts s a held-spechc predlecton. ]he
postmodern s construed and admred essentally through ts
most brazenly ostensve forms. the emblematc artsts are
VarholorCreenaway.
utthe break can also bewrttenna verydfferentway. Ior
Àfer the End of Art, pp. 12, 30-31 , 37.
`Das Ende der Kunstgeschichte. Eine Revision nach zehn Jahre, Munich 1995,
p. 12. I have discussed the intellectual origins of the idea of Posthistoire in 'The
Ends of History', A Zone of Engagement, pp. 279-375.
100
|
>
AFTER- EFFECTS
Ial Ioster, the most cogent theorst of a 'neo-avant-garde`
ndebtedto tshstorcpredecessors, butnotnecessarlynferor
to
them - ndeed perhaps capable of realzng ams they mssed
- t s not the hguratve wt of Iop Art but the austere
abstractonsofMnmalsmthatmarkedthemomentofrupture.
'aparadgmshfttowardspostmodernst practces thatcontnue
to be elaborated today` .' Ior f the orgnal avant-gardes had
concentrated ther hre on the conventons ofart, they had pad
relatvely lttle attenton to ts nsttutons. In exposng these,
the neo-avant-gardes had - as t were, after the event -
consummated ther proiect. ]hs was the task undertaken by
the cohort of artsts whose work represented the most effectve
passage from mnmalsm to conceptualsm. uren, rood
thaers, Asher, laacke. ]he postmodern had never completely
superseded the modern, the two beng always n some sense
'deferred`, as so many prehgured futures and reclamed pasts.
utt had naugurated a range of'newwaysto practce culture
and poltcs`. ]he noton of the postmodern, Ioster nssts,
whatever later msuses were made of t, was not one the left
shouldsurrender.
Such accounts appear vrtually antthetcal, not only n aes
thetcbutpoltcalaccent.Yetthecommonaltesbehndthecon
trastitg torms oteach are aso ait. Parodicav, ote coud
say. wthout uchamp, no Rauschenberg or ]ohns - wthout
]ohns, no Varhol or]udd - wthoutRuscha or]udd, no Kosuth
or Iewtt - wthout Ilavn oruchamp 'hnally outllanked , no
uren.Iventhelastwhtehopeofmodernst abstracton,Irank
Stella, once set up to be bulwark aganst everythng sldng
towardsthe postmodern, played a notnconsderable partnits
arrval. lowever the transformaton of the vsual s
here, connexons and oppostons are nterwned. ]hs i
s stll too recent for detached reconstructon, that would
allts contradctons ther due.uta mere ad hoc nomnalsmis
clearly nsufhcent too. ]he shfts n pantng suggest a wdcr
pattern. Some provsonal way ofconceptualzng what seems
tobeaconsttutvetensonwthnpostmodernsmsneeded.
1
8
The Return of the Real, p. 36.
1
9 The Return of the Real, p. 206.
101
At the very orgn ofthe term, aswehave seen, there vas a
bfurcaton. Vhen e ns hrst coned postmodernismo, he
contrasted t wth ultramodernismo, as two opposte reactons
to lspanc modernism, succeedng each other wthn a bref
space of tme. Ifty years later postmodernsm has become a
general term, whose prmary connotatons reman closetothose
ndcated by e ns, but whch also vsbly exceeds them
towards the other pole of hs constructon. ]o capture ths
complexty, another par of prehxes - nternal to postmodern
sm - s needed. Ierhaps the most approprate could be bor-
rowed from a revolutonary past. In a famous speech, on the
I9th vose of the Year II, Robesperre dstngushed between
'ctra-revolutonary` and 'ultra-revolutonary` forces n Irance-
that s, moderates who wshedto draw the Republc back from
the resolute measures necessary to save t ' anton , and extre-
msts who sought to precptate t forward nto excesses that
would iust as surely lose t ' lcbert . lere, purged of local
polemc,sthedyadthatmorencelyconveysthepolartywthn
thepostmodern.
]he 'ctra` can be taken as all those tendences whch,
breakng wth hgh modernsm, have tended to renstate the
ornamental and more readly avalable, whle the 'ultra` can be
read as all those whch have gone beyond modernsm n
radcalzngts negatons ofmmedatentellgblty or sensuous
grathcaton. Ifthe contrastbetween the pop and the mnmal-
conceptual n the postmodern gallery s archetypal, the same
tenson can be tracedthroughoutthe otherarts. Archtecture s
a partcularly marked case n pont, where the postmodern
stretches from the flordhstroncs ofCraves orMoore at one
endto the deconstructve severtes ofIsenmannorIebesknd
at the other. ctra-modernsm and ultra-modernsm to monu
mental scale. ut t would equally be possble to map - say -
contemporary poetry n smlar fashon. avd Ierkns`s stan
dard hstory, n effect, tactly does so by dstrbutng postmod
ern genres geographcally, as between rtan and Amerca -
2U
See F.-A. Aulard, La Societe des ]acobins. Recueil de documents, Vol V, Paris
1 895, pp. 601-604. No historian doubts that Danton and Hebert also belonged to
the Revolution.
102
I
'
'
AFTER- EFFECTS
modernsm exiting nto Iarkn or lughes on one sde of the
Atlantc, and Ashbery orIerelmanonthe other. Inthusasts for
the latter, of course, would exclude the ctra from postmodern
poetry,' iust asvce-versa]enckswould excludethe ultra from
postmodern archtecture ne of the most strkng features of
]ameson`s crtcal wrtng s hs effortless negotaton of both
poles. Iortman and Cehry,Varhol and laacke, octorow and
Smon, Iynchand Sokurov.
oes a formal dvder of ths knd correspond to any socal
demarcaton-lne: Confrontng the culture of captal, modern
sm could appeal to two alternatve value-worlds, both hostle
to the commercal logcofthe marketandthe bourgeos cult of
thefamly, ffrom opposte standponts. ]he tradtonal arsto-
cratc order offered one set of deals aganst whch to measure
the dctates of proht and prudery- a sprezzatura above vulgar
calculaton or narrow nhbton. ]he emergent labour move-
ment emboded qute another, no less antagonstc to the regn
offetsh and commodty, but seekng ts bass n explotaton,
and ts solutonnan egaltaranfutureratherthan herarchcal
past. ]hese two crtques sustaned the space of aesthetc
experment. Artsts n dspute wth establshed conventons had
thechance ofmetonymic afhlatonwth oneclassortheother,
as moral styles or notonal publcs. Sometmes they were
attracted to both, as famously were crtcs lke Ruskn. ]here
were also other optons. the new urban petty-bourgeose -
amably popular, rather than glowerngly proletaran - was an
mportant referent or the mpressonsts, or for ]oyce. ut the
two prncpal zones ofactual ormagnarynvestmentwere tbc
upper atmosphere of ttled lesure and the lower deeps
manual labour. Strndberg, aghlev, Iroust, Ceorge,
mannsthal, Ànnunzo,Ilot, Rlke can stand forthe hrst
Compare David Perkins, A History of Modern Poetry - Modernism and Afer,
Cambridge, Mass., 1987, pp. 331-353, with Paul Hoover (ed), Postmodern Ameri
can Poetry, New York 1994, pp. xxv-xxxix. Were one to extend its scope beyond
the arts, philosophy offers an obvious feld for much the same contrast - Rorty at
one end, Derrida at the other.
22
For this duality, see in particular Raymond Williams, The Politics of Modernism,
London 1989, pp. 55-57 ff.
103
Insor, Rodchenko, recht, Ilatonov, Ircvert, ]atln, Icger, for
thesecond.
Ivdentlyenough,thsdvarcatonddnotcorrespondto any
partcular pattern of aesthetc mert. ut, equallyplanly, t dd
ndcate two opposte sets ofpoltcal sympathes, thatdelmted
therangeofstylesadopted onether sde. ]herewere, ofcourse,
sgnhcant exceptons here, lke Mallarmc or Cclne, wherethe
hermetc and demotc exchanged deologcal sgns. ut the
general rule holds good that the held of modernsm was
traversed by two socal lnes of attracton, wthformal conse
quences.lowfarcananythng comparable be sadofpostmod-
ernsm: ]he departure of arstocracy, the evanescence of the
bourgeose, the eroson of workng-class conhdence and den
tty, have alteredthesupportsandtargetsofartstcpractcen
fundamental ways. It s not that alternatve addressees have
smply dsappeared. ew poles of oppostonal denthcaton
have emerged n the postmodern perod. gender, race, ecology,
sexual orentaton, regonal or contnental dversty. ut these
havetodateconsttutedaweakersetofantagonsms.
Varholcan betaken asa casenpont. Ina sympathetc and
ngenous readng, Vollen stuates hs 'theatrcalzaton of
everyday lfe` as a contnuaton of the hstorc avant-garde
proiect oflftngthebarrersbetweenartandlfe, takenntothe
underground,wheretspoltcalchargepassed togaylberaton.
ut there s nsufhcent contradcton between ths legacy and
Varhol`s later fascnaton wth Reagansm - the phase of
'socety portrats and cable ]V`.` Subversve nstncts were
ultmately overpowered by somethng much larger. Vollen`s
authortatve rewrtng of the overall traiectory of modernsm
stresses that at ts orgns lay a crculaton between low and
hgh culture, perphery and core, whose orgnal outcome was
much more dsorderly and exuberant than the functonalst
aesthetc later clamped down onto t, n the name ofa stream
lned ndustral modernty, enamoured of Amercansm and
23 Raiding the Icebox, pp. 158-1 61 , 208. For another attractive reading of the early
Warhol, dating a decline from 1966, see Thomas Crow, Modern Art in the
Common Culture, New Haven 1 996, pp. 49-65: a volume that contains perhaps
the best - aesthetically inclusive, yet historically trenchant - sketch of the original
dialectic of modernism and mass culture in the visual arts.
104
AFTER- EFFECTS
Iordsm. ut, he argues, there always perssted a heterodox
undercurrent of 'dfference, excess, hybrdty and olysemy` -
occasonallyvsble evenn such zealots ofpurty as Ioos or Ie
Corbuser - whch, wth the crss ofIordsm, resurfaced nthe
decoratveplayofpostmodernforms.''
Athrstglance,thslooks lke a storywthanupbeatendng.
Yet there are sufhcent indcatons of new forms of corporate
power elsewhere nVollen`s accountto suggestamore ambgu
ous verdct. Vhat s true, however, s that thensttutonal and
technologcal complex to emerge out of the crss of Iordsm
does not acqure the same proportonate weght as the Iordst
conhguraton tself, n hs reconstructon. ]he lesser detal
allows a looser concluson. ]he rsk here s an understatement
of the change n the stuaton of the arts snce the seventes,
where the forces at work n the revval of the ornamental and
.
the hybrd have obvously not i ust been released from below.
Another way of puttng ths would be to ask how far the
appealng ttle of Raiding the Icebox s fully contemporary.
Varhol`s down-home phrase belongs to i ust that 'nostalgc
elegy` forteenage years lved n a Colden Age ofAmercansm
whch, Vollen remarks, dehned Io Art as a whole. Vhat
could bemorehftesthantherefrgerator : etweensuch casual,
haptcrllng amongthepreserves ofthepastandourpostmod-
ern present les an electronc barrer. ]oday, scannng the
pcture-bank, surhng the net, dgtalzng the mage, would be
more actual operatons - all of them, necessarly, medated by
theolgopolesofthespectacle.
It s that transformaton, theubqutyof the spectacle asthe
organzng prncple of the culture ndustry n coe
condtons, whch above all now dvdes the artstc held.
seam between the formal and the socal typcally les her.
ctra-modern can vrtually be dehned as that whch ad `
appealstothe spectacular, theultra-modernasthatwhch seeks
to elude or refuse t. ]here snoway oIseparatngthe return O!
the decoratve from the pressure ofthsenvronment. 'Iow` and
'hgh` acqure a dfferent sense here. denotng no longer the
dstncton between popular and elte, but rather between the
24 Raiding the Icebox, p. 206.
105
marketand thosewho command t. ot that, anymorethann
the modern, there s any smple correspondence between the
relaton ofa workto the demarcaton-lne and ts achevement.
Aesthetc qualty contnues, as always, to be dstnct from
artstc poston. utwhat can be sad, wthcompletecertanty,
sthat nthe postmodernthectra nevtably predomnates over
the ultra. Ior the market creates ts own supply on a scale
massvely beyond any practces that would resst t. ]he spec
taclesbydenntonwhatmesmerzesthesocalmaxmum.
It s ths endemc mbalance wthn the postmodern that
surfaces n the after-thoughts of even ts most serous and
generous commentators. ]he lastchapter of The Return of the
Real hasthemelancholcttle.'Vhateverhappenedtopostmod
ernsm: ` - that s, the practces and theores ts author had
champoned, nowperceved asalreadyllotsam, strandedonthe
banks of tme by the onward stream of the meda.'` Vollen,
vewng the Academy show of I997, found nstallaton art
ncreasngly standardzed n ts hour of vctory, and the spark
ofnnovatonunexpectedlypassng back to pantng, n doubt
fulcombatwthtsnewenvronment - or'thetensonfeltnthe
art world between the legacy of a lost Modernsm and the
ascendant culture of the spectacle, the transformed and trum-
phal forces ofeveythngwhch Clement Creenberg dsmssed as
ktsch. ]he new world order s n the ascendant and the art
25 The Return of the Real, pp. 205-206. It might be hazarded that Foster's remarks
reflect a more general disappointment of October, the j oural where they frst
appeared, whose key role in proposing radical versions of postmoder possibilities
in the visual arts, after the path-breaking essays of Rosalind Krauss, Douglas Crimp
and Craig Owens of 19791980, has yet to be properly documented. The collective
volume edited by Foster in 1983, The Anti-Aesthetic, which included Jameson's
Whitney address, is representative of this moment. For the change of tone by the
late eighties, compare e.g. Patricia Mainardi's scathing 'Postmoder History at the
Musee d' Orsay', October, No 41, Summer 1987, pp. 31-52. This is the trajectory
that can already be found in Hassan or Lyotard. 'Citra' standpoints do not
encounter the same diffculties - although on occasion perhaps they should. For an
amusing example of imperturbable suivisme, applauding just what was originally
decried, see Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's complacent tale of the way
the 'decorated shed' was wiped out by the 'duck' in their desert resort: 'Las Vegas
after its Classic Age', in Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture
- A View from the Drafting Room, Cambridge, Mass., 1996.
106
AFTER- EFFECTS
world cannot possbly nsulate tself from t` . I n ths predca-
ment, contemporary art s pulled n two drectons. a desre to
'reassess the Modernst tradton, to rencorporate elements of
t as correctve to the new Iostmodern vsual culture`, and a
drve to 'throw oneself headlong nto the new seductve world
of celebrty, commercalsm and sensaton` .' ]hese paths, he
concludes, are ncompatble. In the nature of thngs, there s
lttledoubtwhchslkelytobeartheheavertrafhc.
Infections
Does]ameson`swrtng onpostmodernsmsuggestanycompar
ableevolutonofemphass: Smlarnotes arecertanlystruckn
hsstudyofAdorno, thatcan be read not onlyn the key ofts
ttle Late Marxism but also as a retreval, n the sprt of
Vollen`s remark, of a dalectcal legacy of late modernsm.
]ameson s explct on ths pont. 'Adorno`s modernsm pre-
cludes assmlaton to the aleatory free play of postmodern
textualty, whch s to say that a certannoton oftruth s stll
at stake n these verbal or formal matters` , and hs example
perssts even at ts most provocatve. Dialectic of Enlighten
ment's ptless examnaton of lollywood, whatever ts other
shortcomngs, remnds us that 'perhaps today, when the
trumph of the more utopan theores of mass culture seems
complete and vrtually hegemonc, we need the correctve of
some new theory ofmanpulaton, and ofa properly postmod-
ern commodhcaton`. In current condtons, what were once
dosyncratc lmtatons have become essental antdotes.
'Adornowas a doubtful allywhentherewerestllpowerful
oppostonal poltcal currents from whch hs emp m
andcantankerous quetsm could dstract the commtted
ow that for the moment those currents are themselves
cent, hs ble s a i oyouscounter-poson and a corrosve solvenf
to the surface of what i s"` . ' lere s the poltcal voce of the
samerequrement.
26
'Thatcher's Artists', London Review of Books, 30 October 1 997, p. 9.
27
Late Marxism - Adorno, or, the Persistence of the Dialectic, London 1 990,
pp. 11, 143.
28
Late Marxism, p. 249.
107
]ameson`s book onAdorno s vrtually contemporary wth
Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.
Snce then, canwe detect any nllecton n hs trackng of the
postmodern: In the last part of the The Seeds of Time ( 1 994) ,
confessng ' a certan exasperaton wth myself and others` for
over-statng the 'ungovernable rchness` of the archtectural
forms ofthe postmodern, ]amesonproposednsteadastructural
analyss of ts constrants. ]he result s a combnatory of
postons, delmted by four sgns - totalty,nnovaton,partal
ty, replcaton - whch forms a closed system. Such closure
does not determne the responses of the archtect to ts set of
possbltes, but does dellate the pluralst rhetorc ofpostmod
ernsm. Stll, t s strkng that here ]ameson professes admr
aton for all the practtoners or theorsts - Koolhaas,
Isenmann, Craves, Ando, Moore, Ross, Irampton- dstrb
uted round hs semotc square, no matter howmutually nm-
cal. Consstent wth ths ecumencsm, although the socal s
oftenpowerfullyevoked nthe course ofthe account,taffords
no dscrmnaton between postons, whch are dfferentated
byformalcrteraalone.
A paradoxcal consequence s to hnd the embellshments of
Moore or Craves algned wth the savage abhorrence of them
byIramptonnthesameaesthetcquadrant - whchtheanalyss
has then to decant nto a subsdary combnatory n order to
separate out. Irampton, for one, mght regard ths way of
lookngatthe archtectural battleheld as nsufhcentlycrtcal.
It s true that archtecture occupes a pecular poston wthn
the arts, whch may help to explan ]ameson`s apparent ret
cence here. o other aesthetc practce has such mmedate
socal mpact, and - logcally enough - none has therefore
generated somany ambtous proiects ofsocal engneerng. ut
snce at the same tme the cost and consequences of a maior
buldng complex aregreater than those ofanyother medum,
theactualexercseoffree choce- ofstructures orstes- bythe
archtect s typcally smaller than anywhere else. overwhelm-
ngly, clents corporate or bureaucratc call the shots. ]he very
29 The Seeds ofTime, New York 1994, p. xiv.
3 Compare his Modern Architecture -A Critical History, London 1992, pp. 306-311.
108
AFTER- EFFECTS
hrst sentence of Koolhaas`s enormous programmatc revere,
S,M,L,XL, reads. 'Archtecture s a hazardous mxture of
omnpotence and mpotence`.`' If a certan substantve mpo
tencewerethecommonbase-lne, thenfantasesofomnpotence
couldonlyhndoutletnforms.
It remans to be seen how far reasonng of ths knd les
behnd ]ameson`s approach. It s notceable, however, that the
combnatory - announced as only a sketch - has snce been
followed by nterventons of more strngent cast, that start to
posethe questons tleftasde. An urbane revew ofKoolhaas`s
summum blends warmth of personal admraton forthehgure
wth a forbddng proiecton of the future he extols - the
dsposable cty, whose nearest antcpaton s Sngapore. an
ebullent conoclasm dealzng a vrtually pententary settng,
as the perverse destnaton of a 'vanguard wthout a msson`.`
Subsequently, ]ameson has nssted on the 'the agonzng ssue
of responsbltes and prortes` n contemporary archtecture,
and the need for a crtque ofts deology offorms - wherethe
facades of ohll or Craves belong to the order of the smula
crum, and 'a wealth of nventveness dssolves nto frvolty or
sterlty` . `` In the hnal text of The Cultural Turn, t s the
speculatve structure of globalzed hnance tself - the regn of
hcttous captal, n Marx`s terms - that hnds archtectural
shape n the phantom surfaces and dsemboded volumes of
manyapostmodernhgh-rse.
Inotherareas,thenllectonlookssharper.owheremore so
than n the stunnng long essay on ']ransformatons of the
Image` at the centre of The Cultural Turn. lere ]ameson
regsters a wholesale return wthn the postmodern of themcs
once theoretcally proscrbed by t. a renstatement of cth

:r
`
return ofthe subiect, rehabltatonofpoltcalscence,rcnc
debates about modernty, and - above all - a redscovcrym
aesthetcs. In so far as postmodernsm n a larger sense, as thc
logc of captalsm trumphant on a world scale, has banshed
31 OM, Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau: S,M,X,XL, Rotterdam 1995, p. xix.
32
'XXL: Rem Koolhaas's Great Big Buildingsroman', Village Voice Literary Sup
plement, May 1 996.
33 'Space Wars', London Review of Books, 4 April 1996.
109
the spectre ofrevoluton, ths recent twst represents n]ame-
son`s readng what we mght call a 'restoraton wthn the
restoraton` . ]he partcular obiect of hs crtque s the revval
ofa pronounced aesthetc ofbeauty n the cnema. Ixamples he
dscussesrangefrom]arman orKeslowsk atone level, through
drectors lke Cofeau or Solas at another, to current lolly
wood acton pctures, not to speak ofthethematcs of art and
relgon assocated wth the new output of the beautful. ls
concluson sdraconan.where once beauty could be a subver
sve protest aganst the market and ts utlty-functons, today
theunversalcommodhcatonofthe magehasabsorbed t asa
treacherous patna of the establshed order. ']he mage s the
commodtytoday, and thatswhytsvan to expectanegaton
of the logc of commodty producton from t, that s why,
hnally, allbeautytodaysmeretrcous` .`'
]he ferocty of ths dctum has no equvalent n ]ameson`s
wrtng onarchtecture, whchevenattsmostreservedsmuch
more lenenton clamstovsual splendour. Vhatmghtexplan
the dfference: Ierhaps we should thnk of the contrastng
poston ofthe two arts - cnema and archtecture - n popular
culture. ]he hrst was vrtuallyfrom ncepton ts centre-pece,
whle the second hasneverreally acqured much ofafoot-hold.
]herewas nohlmccounterpart offunctonalsm. In thsmore
rarehed held, a turn towards the decoratve would be less
tantedbymmedateassocatonwthalong-standngaesthetc
ofentertanmentthannthemostcome-onofallthe commercal
arts. In ']ransformatons of the Image` , ]ameson takes hs
llustratons of the aesthetc of beauty from markedly exper-
mental, calculatedly mddle-brow and straghtforwardly popu-
larhlms alke. ut ft s dfhculttovewLatino Bar or Yeelen
n the same way as Blue or The Godfather, the pressure for
ther assmlaton comes from the category ofthe last. ]hs can
be seen from the focus of ]ameson`s orgnal attack on hlmc
beauty- the nauthentc 'cult ofthe glossy mage` n box-ofhce
nostalga pcs, whose 'sheer beauty can seem obscene` as 'some
ultmate packagng ofature n cellophane of a type that an
elegant shop mght well wsh to carry n ts wndows` . It s
34 See The Cultural Turn, p. 135.
1 1 0
AFTER- EFFECTS
notable that on that occason, atthe source ofhs obi ectons,
]ameson speched ther opposte. those 'hstorcal moments and
stuatonsnwhchtheconquestofbeautyhasbeenawrenchng
poltcalact. the hallucnatory ntenstyof smeared colour nthe
grmy numbness of routne, the btter-sweet taste of the erotc
naworldofbrutalzedand exhausted bodes`.``
Ifthose possblteshave so dwndled today, the reason les n
the 'mmense dstance between the stuaton ofmodernsm and
thatofthepostmodernsorourselves` created bythegeneralzed
mutatonofthemagentospectacle - fortoday'whatcharacter-
zes postmodernty n the cultural area s the suers ss of
everythng outsde of commercal culture, ts asof all
culture, hgh and low`, nto a sngle system.` ]hs cultural
transformaton, n whch the market becomes all-nclusve, s
accompaned by a socal metamorphoss. ]ameson`s account of
ths change s, ntally at least, more favourable. Iontng to
greater levels of lteracy and abundance of nformaton, less
herarchcal manners and more unversal dependency on wage-
labour, heusesarechtantermtocapturetheresultantlevellng
process. not democratzaton, whch would mply a poltcal
soveregnty consttutvely mssng, but 'plebeanzaton` - a
development whch, wth all ts lmts, the left can only wel-
come.`'ut,assoftenthewayn]ameson,thedalectcaldepths
ofaconceptdsclosethemselvesonlygradually.
Subsequent retlecton on ths alteraton thus strkes a some-
whatdfferentnote.InTlcccJsojTimc, plebeanzatonreveals
another aspect - not so much a closng of class dstance, as a
cancellatonofsocaldfference tout court: that s, theerosonor
suppressonofanycategory oftheothernthecollectve u"o+;
ary. Vhatoncecouldberepresentedalternatvelybyhgh
orthe underworld, thenatve ortheforegner, now fades
fantasmagora of nterchangeable status and aleatoryun>U1.U'o.
n whch no postonm the socalscale r everrrevocablyhxed,
and the alen can only be proiected outwards nto the replcant
or extra-terrestral. Vhat corresponds to ths hguraton s not
35 Signatures of the Visible, p. 85.
36 See The Cultural Turn, p. 135.
1 1 1
any greater obi ectve equalty - whch has, on the contrary,
everywhere receded n the postmodern Vest - but rather the
dssoluton ofcvl socety as a space ofprvacy and autonomy,
ntoai aggedno-man`s-landofanonymousmaraudnganddereg-
ulated volence. the world ofVllam Cbson or Bladerunner.38
Althoughnotwthouttsgrmsatsfactons,suchplebeanzaton
perforce denotes not greater popular enlghtenment, but new
formsofnebratonand deluson. leresthenatural sol ofthe
luxurant crescence of commodhed magery whch ]ameson
analysessopowerfullyelsewhere.
]he noton of plebeanzaton comes from recht. ut to
regster these ambgutes s also to recall a lmt before whch,
we mght say, hs thought faltered. ]here was one massve
realty recht`s art never succeeded n renderng. the tell-tale
sgn of hs uncertanty before t s the trvalzaton of Arturo
Ui. Ior the ]hrd Rech was also, undenably, a form of
plebeanzaton - perhaps the most drastc yet known, one
whch dd not rellect but pursued the eradcatonofevery trace
ofthe other. ]o note ths s not toconiure up renewed dangers
offascsm, a lazyexercseoIrght andleftalketoday. utt s
toremndusofanalternatvelegacyfromthattme,theexample
of Cramsc, who n hs years n prsonconfrontedthe poltcal
strength and popular support of fascsm wthout the smallest
self-decepton. It s n hs notebooks that perhaps the most
suggestveanalogyforthe socaltransformatonofthepostmod-
erncanbefound.
As anItalan,Cramscwascompelled tocomparetheRenas
sance and the Reformaton - the reawakenng of classcal
cultureand supremellourshng oftheartshsowncountryhad
known, and the ratonalzaton of theology and formdable
regeneratonofrelgonthadmssed. Intellectuallyandaesthet-
calIy,ofcourse,theRenassancecould beiudgedfarnadvance
oftheReformatonthatfollowedt,whch - vewednarrowly -
n many ways saw a regresson to a crude phlstnsm and
bblcal obscurantsm. uttheReformatonwas nthatsensea
conservatvereactonthat brought a hstorcalprogress. Ior the
Renassance had been essentally an elte affar, conhned to
38 The Seeds of Time, pp. 1 52-159.
112
AFTER- EFFECTS
prvleged mnorties even among the educated, whereas the
Reformatonwasa mass upheaval that transformed theoutlook
ofhalfthecommonpeopleofIurope. ut nthe sequencefrom
one to the other lay the condton ofthe Inlghtenment.` Ior
the extraordnary sophstcaton of Renassance culture, con
hned to those above, had to be coarsened and smplhed fts
break-outfrom themedaeval world wasto be transmtted as a
ratonalmpulseto those below.]hereform ofrelgonwas that
necessary adulteraton, the passage of ntellectual advance
through the ordeal of popularzaton, to a broader and so
eventuallystrongerandfreersocalfoundaton.
]he emprcal qualhcatons requred by Cramsc`s account
need not concern us here. Vhat s pertnents the hgure ofthe
process he descrbed. Iors notsomethngvery close to ths the
relaton of Modernsm to Iostmodernsm, vewed hstorcally:
]he passage from the one to the other, as cultural systems,
appears marked by iust such a combnaton of dffuson and
dluton. 'Ilebeanzaton` nths sense does mean a vast broad-
enng of the socal bass of modern culture, but by the same
tokenalso a greatthnnng oftscrtcal substance,to yeldthe
llatpostmodernpoton. Qualty has once agan been exchanged
for quantty, n a process whch can be looked at alte
rnatvely
as a welcome emancpaton from class conhnement or asa dre
contractonofnventve energes. Certanly,the phenomenon of
cultural coarsenng, whose ambgutes caught Cramsc`s atten-
ton, s on global dsplay. Mass toursm, the greatest of all
ndustresofthespectacle,canstandastsmonument,ntsawe
some mxture ofrelease anddespolment. utheretheanalogv
posests queston. InthetmeoftheReformaton,thevehclc
descent nto popular lfe was relgon. t was the protest
churches that assured the passage of post-medaeval cultur
a more democratc and secular world. ]oday, the vehcle s
market. Are banks and corporatons plausble canddates tOt
the samehstorcalrole:
It senoughto pursuethe comparsona lttle to seetslmts.
39 Gramsci took much of his argument from Croce, but turned it more sharply in
favour of the Reformation. For his principal reflections, see Quaderni del Carcere,
Turin 1 977, Vol II, pp. 1 1 29-1 130, 1293-1294; Vol III, pp. 1 858-1 862.
113
]heReformatonwas nmanywaysasocallowerngofcultural
heghts prevously attaned. the lkes of Machavell or Mchel-
angelo, Montagne or Shakespeare, were not to be reproduced
agan. ut t was also, of course, a poltcal movement of
convulsve energy, unleashng wars and cvl wars, mgratons
andrevolutons,acrossthebetterpartofIurope. ]heIrotestant
dynamc was deologcal, drven by a set of belefs hercely
attached to ndvdual conscence, resstant to tradtonal
authorty, devoted to the lteral, hostle to the conc - an
outlookthatproduced tsownradcalthnkers, athrsttheolog-
cal, and then more openly and drectlypoltical. the declenson
fromMelanchthon or CalvntoVnstanleyor Iocke. lere, for
Cramsc, was the progressve role of the Reformaton that
pavedthewaytothe epoch oftheInlghtenmentandtheIrench
Revoluton. It was an nsurgency aganst the pre-modern deo-
logcalorderoftheunversalchurch.
]he culture ofthe postmodern s the nverse. Although great
poltcal changes have swept over the world n the past quarter
century, these have only rarely been the hard-fought outcome
of mass poltcal struggles. Iberal democracy has spread by
force of economc example, or pressure - Marx`s 'artllery of
commodtes` - not by moral upheaval or socal moblzaton,
and asthas doneso, ts substancehas tendedto dwndle, both
n ts homelands and ts new terrtores, asfallng rates ofvoter
partcpatonandmountngpopular apathy setn.]heZeitgeist
s not strred. t s the hour of democratc fatalsm. low could
tbeotherwse,whensocalnequaltyncreasespari passu wth
poltcal legalty, and cvc mpotencc hand n hand wth novel
suffrage: Vhat moves s only tne market - but ths at ever-
acceleratng speed, churnng habts, styles, communtes, popu-
latonsn tswake. oprstned enlghtenment les attheend
ofthsi ourney.Aplebeanbegnnnglacksautomatcconnexon
wth a phlosophcal endng. ]he movementofrelgous reform
began wth the breaking of mages, the arrval ofthe postmod-
ern has nstalled the rule of mages as never before. ]he con
once shattered by the dssenter`s blow s now enshrned n
plexglassasunversalex voto.
]he culture ofthespectacc !asgenerated, ofcourse,tsown
deology. ]hs s the doxa ofpostmodernsm that descendsfrom
1 14
AFTER- EFFECTS
the momentof Iyotard.Intellectually, t snotofmuchnterest.
anundemandngmedley ofnotons, whose upshotslttle more
than a slack-jawedconventonalsm. utsncethe crculaton of
deas n the socal body does not typcally depend on ther
coherence, but ther congruence wth materal nterests, the
nlluence of ths deology remans consderable - by no means
conhned to campus lfe alone, but pervasve n popular culture
at large. It sto ths complex that]erry Iagletonhas devoted a
scntllatng crtque n The Illusions of Postmodernism. At the
outset, Iagleton dstngushes clearly between the postmodern
understood as a development n the arts, and as a system of
idees reus, andexplansthathsconcern sexclusvelywththe
latter. le then consders one after another of the standard
tropes of an ant-essentalst, ant-foundatonalst rhetorc -
reiectons of any dea of human nature, conceptons of hstory
as random process, equatons of class wth race or gender,
renuncatons oftotaltyordentty, speculatons ofan undeter-
mned subiect - and, wth delcate precson, dsmantles each.
]here has rarely been so effectve and comprehensve a dssec-
tonofwhatmghtbecalled, sardoncally adaptng Cramscto
]ohnson,thecommonnonsenseoftheage.
ut Iagleton`s purpose s not i ust a sottisier. le would also
stuate the deology of postmodernsm hstorcally. Advanced
captalsm, he argues, requres two contradctory systems of
i usthcaton: a metaphysc of abdng mpersonal vertes - the
dscourse of soveregnty and law, contract and oblgaton - n
thepoltcalorder, and a casustc ofndvdual preferences for
the perpetually shftng fashons and grathcatons of'VJJiuJu1
ton n the economc order. Iostmodernsm gves
expressontothsdualsm,sncewhletsdsmssalofthe
subiectnfavouroftheerratc swarmngs ofdesrecollud
the amoral hedonsm ofthe market, ts denal of any
values or obi ectve truths undermnes the preva!ing
tons ofthestate.Vhat explans such ambvalence: lere IagIc
ton`saccounthestates. ls studybegnswththemostsustaincd
readng ofpostmodernsm asthe product ofpoltcal defeaton
the left ventured to date - a 'dehntve repulse`.' ut ths s
40 The Illusions ofPostmodernism, Oxford 1997, p. 1 .
1 1 5
presented as playful parable rather than actual reconstructon.
Ior wth characterstc sympathy, Iagleton suggests that post-
modernsmcannotbereducedto ths. twas alsothe emervence
ofhumlated mnortes onto the theoretcal stage, and a 'ver-
table revoluton`nthoughtaboutpower, desre,denttyandthe
body, wthoutwhose nspratonno radcalpoltcs s hencefor-
wardthnkable.'
]hedeologcal ambvalence ofthe postmodern thusmghtbe
lnked to a hstorcal contrast. schematcally - defeat of organ-
zed labour and student rebellon concludng n economc
accommodaton to the market, rse of the nsulted and niured
leadng to poltcalquestonngofmoralty and the state. Some
such parallelsm scertanlylatent nIagleton`saccount. utf
t s neverqute spelt out, the reason les n anequvocaton at
ts outset. n the lace of t, there would appear to be lttle
common measure between the two background developments
assgned to postmodernsm. the one drven home n a frontal
chapter that sets the scenefor the whole book, the other - ast
were - allusve compensaton for t n a couple ofparagraphs.
Ioltcalrealtywouldsuggestthat such aratowasgood sense.
ut t sts uneasly wth the noton of ambvalence, whch
mples a party of effect. Ierhaps aware of the dfhculty,
Iagleton momentarly retracts wth one hand whatheadvances
wth the other. ]he fable ofpoltcal defeat concludeswth the
'most bzarre possblty of all` , ashe asks. ' What if this defeat
never really happened in the frst place? Vhat f t were less a
matter of the left rsng up and beng forced back, than of a
steady dsntegraton, a gradual falure of nerve, a creepng
paralyss : ` . Verethatthecase, thenbalance between cause and
effect would be restored. ut, tempted though he s by ths
comfortngfancy, Iagletons too lucd tonsstont. ls book
ends as t begns, 'regretfully, on a more mnatory note` . not
equpose,butllusonsthe bottom-lne ofthepostmodern.'
]he dscursve complex that s the obiect of Iagleton`s
crtques, ashenotes,aphenomenonthatmaybetreatedapart
from theartstcforms ofpostmodernsm- deology asdstnct
` The Il usions of Postmodernism, p. 24.
Compare The Il usions ofPostmodernism, pp. 19, 1 34.
116
AFTER- EFFECTS
Irom culture, na tradtonal acceptance oIthese terms. ut, oI
course, n a wdersensethetwocannot besocleanly separated.
low, then, shouldtherrelatonshp beconceved:]hedoxa oI
the postmodern s dehned, as Iagleton n eIIect shows, by a
prmary aIhntywththecatechsms olh.markct.Vhatweare
lookng at, consequently. ui| tice the cuterpart oI the
'ctra` - as the domnant strand n postmodern culture - n the
deologcal held. It s strkng how lttle concernedjamesonhas
been wth t. ut I we ask ourselves where the antthetcal
moment oI 'ultra` theorys to beIound, the answer snotIarto
seek. It has oItenbeen observed that the postmodernarts have
beenshortoIthemanIestoesthatpunctuatedthehstoryoIthe
modern. ]hs can be overstated, as thc examples oIKosuth or
Koolhaas notedabovendcate. utIaesthetcprogrammescan
certanly stll beIound - albetnow more oItenndvdualthan
collectve,whathasundoubtedlybeenmssngsanyrevoluton-
ary vson oI the knd artculated by the hstorc avant-gardes.
Stuatonsm, whch Ioresaw so many aspects oIthe postmod-
ern,hashadnosequelswthnt.
]hetheoretcalnstancetheavant-gardeIormrepresentedhas
not, however, dsappeared. Rather, ts Iuncton has mgrated.
Iorwhatelses]ameson`stotalzaton oIpostmodernsmtselI:
Inthe epochoImodernsm, revolutonaryartgeneratedts own
descrptons oI the tme or ntmatons oI the Iuture, whle Ior
the most part ts practces were vewed sceptcally, or at best
selectvely, by poltcal or phlosophcal thnkers oI the leIt.
]rotsky`scoolness to Iutursm, Iukacs`s resstance to rechtan
Verfremdung, Adorno`s averson to surrealsm, were character-
stc oIthat coni uncture. Inthe perod oIpostmodernsm, t
-
has been a reversal oI roles. Radcal strands n the
reclamng or developng legaces oIthe avant-gardes,
been lackng. ut no doubt n part because oI the . .onci
coexstence oI the ctra-modern, oI whch there was no LD1.1L. l
equvalent, ths 'ultra-modernst` culture has notproduced
conhdent account oI the age, or sense oI ts general drecton.
]hat has been the achevement oI ]ameson`s theory oI the
postmodern. lere, vewed comparatvely, s where the crtcal
ambton and revolutonary elan oI the classcal avant-garde
have passed. In ths regster, ]ameson`s work can be read as a
117
snglecontnuous equvalentoIall thepassonatemeteorologes
oIthe past. ]hetotalzers nowexternal, butthatdsplacement
belongs to themomentoIhstorythatthetheorytselIexplans.
IostmodO:m ' clturaJtcic ++taljn not embat-
tled, but complacent beyond precedent. Resstance can only
startbystarngdownthsorderasts.
Scope
]heclasscalavant-gardes remaned Vestern, evenItheheter-
odox currents oImodernsm, oIwhchtheyIormed one stream,
repeatedly sought nspraton n the rental, the AIrcan, the
Amercan-Indan. ]he scope oI ]ameson`s work exceeds ths
occdental boundary. ut t can be asked whether, n dong so,
t nevertheless stll proiects an unduly homogeneous cultural
unverse atlarge, modelled ontheorthAmercan system atts
core. 'Modernsm` , wrtes Ieter Vollen, 's not beng succeeded
by a totalzng Vestern postmodernsm but by a hybrd new
aesthetc n whch new Iorms oI communcaton and dsplay
wll be constantly conIronted by new vernacular Iorms oI
nventon and expresson`, beyond the ' stllngly Iurocentrc
dscourse` oIthe latter-day modern and postmodern alke.'`]he
same knd oI obi ecton acqures more doctrnal Iorm n the
corpus oI 'postcolonal theory` . ]hs body oI crtcsm has
developedsnce themd-eghtes, largelyndrect reactontothe
nlluence oI deas oI postmodernsm n the metropoltan
countres, and n partcular to ]ameson`s own constructon oI
theheld.
]he gravamen oI the charge aganst hs theory s that t
gnores or suppresses practces n the perphery that not only
cannotbeaccommodatedwthnthe categores oIthepostmod
ern, but actvely reiect them. Ior these crtcs, postcolonal
culture s nherently more oppostonal, and Iar more poltcal
than the postmodernsm oI the centre. Challengng the over
weenng pretensons oI the metropols, t typcally has no
hestatonn appealng to ts own radcalIorms oIrepresenta
ton or realsm, proscrbed by postmodern conventons. ]he
Raiding the Icebox, pp. 205, 209.
18
AFTER- EFFECTS
champons ofthe postcolonal 'wsh once and lor all toname
and dsclam postmodernism as neo-mperalst` . Ior 'the con-
cept of postmodernty has been constructed n terms whch
more or less ntentonally wpe out the possblty of post-
colonal dentty` - that s, the need of the vctms ofVestern
mperalsm to acheve a sense of themselves 'uncontamnated
by unversalst or Iurocentrcconcepts and mages` . Ior ths,
whattheyrequre are notthe perncous categores ofa totalz-
ng Vestern Marxsm, but the dscrete genealoges of, say,
MchelIoucault.
Iostcolonaltheory has already attracted a seres ofpowerful
reionders,whchtwouldbeotose to repeathere.`]he noton
of the 'postcolonal` tself, as typcally used n ths lterature, s
soelastcthatt loses vrtually anycrtcaledge. ]emporally, ts
advocates nsst, postcolonal hstory s not conhned to the
perod snce ndependence of states that were once colones -
rather, t desgnates ther entre experence snce the moment of
colonzaton tself. Spatally, t s not restrcted to lands con-
quered by the Vest, but extends to those settled by t, so that
by a perverse logc even theUnted States, the summt of neo
mperalsmtself, becomes a postcolonalsocetyn quest ofts
breachless dentty.' ]hs nllaton of the concept, tendng to
deprve t ofany operatonal sgnhcance, no doubt owes much
to ts geo-poltcal orgns - whch le not where mght be
expected,n Asa orAfrca, butntheformerVhteDomnons.
ewZealand,Australa, Canada, andperhapssomethng tots
Simon During, 'Postmodernism or Postcolonialism? ', Landfall, Vol 39, No 3,
1985, pp. 369; 'Postmodernism or Postcolonialism Today', Textual Practice, Vol
l; -
No 1, 1987, p. 33. These two texts from New Zealand, each of which t
Jameson to task, contain the earliest and clearest statement of key themes in_
literature. For remarks on an 'underlying realist script' in postcolonial literature
Stephen Siemon: 'Modernism's Last Post', i Ian Adam and Helen Triffn (eds), Past
the Last Post, New York 1991, pp. 1-1 1, a contribution from Canada.
` See, in particular, Arif Dirlik, 'The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism in
the Age of Global Capitalism', Critical Enquiry, Winter 1994, pp. 328-356; and
Aijaz Ahmad, 'The Politics of Literary Postcoloniality', Race and Class, Autumn
1 995, pp. 1-20.
See Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffths, Helen Triffn, The Empire Writes Back:
Theory and Practice in Colonial Literatures, London 1 989, p. 2: the authors write
from Australia.
119
ntellectualsourcestoo - thebanalzationofpower nIoucault`s
overstretching of the concept comes to mnd. At all events, a
concepton ofthe postcolonial as aqueous as ths can scarcely
affectitstarget.
A more reasonable construal of the term takes its prehx in
less cavaler fashon, to denote a hstorcal perod where decol-
onzaton has ndeed occurred, but neo-mperial domnaton
perssts no longer directly based on mltary force, but on
forms ofdeologcal consent that callfornewknds ofpoltcal
andculturalresistance.' ]hs verson oftheidea ofpostcoloni-
alism clearly rellects more of the realty of the contemporary
world, even fthe second sgnin the term stll misses part ofts
target, since such maior states as Chna- the specihc obiect of
ths reinterpretaton - or Iran were never colonized, and most
ofIatinAmercaceased to be sonearlytwocenturesago. ut
inits nsstence onthestrengthofmarketpenetratonofpopular
cultures outsde the core zone of advanced captalism, t goes
fartomeet- ratherthan contest - ]ameson`sdescrptonofthe
mpact of postmodernsm, ndeed, at the level of detal,
expressly conhrms t. So, too, the vtalty of mutant forms of
realism inthe arts oftheperphery - where, say, employmentof
magical motifs canbe seen asa typcal resortto 'weapons ofthe
weak` - and ther unsettling effect, to whichpostcolonalcrtcs
legtimately pont, does not contradct the conhguraton ofthe
centre. ]here after all postmodernism, especally on its citra
slope, always included certain realst appeals, and has had no
difhcultyinncorporatngsupernaturaltwststothem.
A more substantal obi ection to ]ameson`s case for a global
domnance of the postmodern comes not from clams for the
postcolonial, but rather simply from the lack of full captalst
modernzation itself n so many areas of what was once the
]hird Vorld. In conditions where the mnmum conditons of
modernity - literacy, ndustry, moblity - are stll bascally
absent or only patchly present, how can postmodernty have
anymeanng: Itis alongwayfromDamondDustShoestothe
See Shaobo Xie, 'Rethinking the Problem of Postcolonialism', New Literary
History, Vol 28, No 1, Winter 1977 (Issue on 'Cultural Studies: China and The
West'), p. 9ff.
120
AFTER- EFFECTS
]aklamakanorIrrawaddy.]ameson`s argument, however, does
not depend on any contenton - obviously absurd - that
contemporary captalsm has created a homogeneous set of
socal circumstances round the world. Uneven development s
inherent in the system, whose 'abrupt new expanson` has
'equally unevenly` eclpsed older forms ofnequalty and mult
pled new ones 'we as yet understand less well`.' ]he real
queston s whether ths unevenness is too great to sustan any
commonculturallogc.
Iostmodernsm emerged as a cultural dominant n unprece-
dently rch captalst socetes wth very high average levels of
consumpton. ]ameson`s hrst reconnaissance lnked it directly
to these, and he has snce nsisted further on ts specihcally
Amercan orgns. Vould itnottherefore bereasonabletothnk
thatwherelevelsofconsumptonwerefarlower, andthe stage
of industral development much less advanced, a conhguration
closer to modernsm - as t once llourshed ntheVest- would
be more lkely to prevail ]his was a hypothess to which I, at
anyrate, was drawn.' Inthese condtions, mght onenotexpect
to hnd a pronounced dualsm of high and low forms, compar-
able to the Iuropean dvde between avant-garde and mass
culture, possbly with a still wider gulfbetween the two: ]he
Indancinemawouldappeartooffera casenpoint.thecontrast
between Satyait Ray`s hlms and the avalanche of song-and-
dance genresfromthe ombaystudios looking as stark as any
nthe developedworld. utthis, ofcourse, s anexamplefrom
a highlyprotected national market inthe sixtes. ]oday, global
communcationssystemsensureanncomparablygreaterdegree
ofculturalpenetration oftheformerSecond and ]hirdVorlds >
by the Irst. In these condtions, the nlluence of postmo
forms becomes inescapable - nthe archtecture of cities `
ShanghaiorKuala Iumpur, the art shows ofCaracasors-|m
novels andhlmsfromMoscowtouenosAres.
Inlluence, however, is not necessarly dominance. ]he pres-
ence of signhcant groups of artists, or clusters of buldngs,
whose references are clearly postmodern does not ensure any
Late Marxism, p. 249.
'Modernity and Revolution', A Zone of Engagement, pp. 40, 54.
121
local hegemony. !n the terms ]ameson hmself uses, after
Raymond Vllams, the postmodern could well be only 'emer
gent` - ratherthanthe modern beng 'resdual ` . ]hs, certanly,
s the vew of such a level-headed crtc as ]onathan Arac,
surveyng these ssues nthe countrywhere theyare more hotly
debated thanperhaps anywhere else today, the Ieople`s Repub
lc ofChna.`Vthnearlya bllon people stll onthe land, the
concluson s dfncult to contest. !t would be open to ]ameson
toreplythattheglobalhegemonyofthepostmoderns iustthat
- a net predomnance at world level, whch does not exclude a
subordnate role at the natonal level, n any gven case. low
ever that may be, there s another consderatonwhch must be
weghed n the scales. Iostmodern culture s not i ust a set of
aesthetc forms, t s also a technologcal package. ]elevson,
whch was so decsve n the passage to a new epoch, has no
modernst past. !t became the most powerful medum of all n
the postmodern perod tsclf. ut that power s far greater -
more absolutely dspoportonate to the mpact of all others
combned - n the!ormer ]hrd Vorld than t s n the Irst
tself.
]hs paradox must gve pause to anyover-quckdsmssal of
the dea that the damned of the earth too have entered the
kngdom of the spectacle. !t s unlkely to reman isolated. Ior
i ustahead les the mpact ofthenew technologes ofsmulaton
- or prestdgtaton - whose arrval s qute recent even n the
rch cultures.Venowhaveastrangelyaugustdoramaofthese,
n]ulanStallabrass`s remarkable Gargantua. lere, qute unex
pectedly, ]ameson`s call for a sequel to Adorno and lorkhe
mer` s ' Culture !ndustry` , to address subsequent forms of
manpulaton, has been fulnlled. o work snce that famous
analyss has so closely matched ts ambton, or represented
such a nttng successon, although here the countervalng
nfluence of eniamn tlts an Adornan proiect away from the
declaratvelysystematctowardsamorepointilliste phenomenal
plane. Stallabrass surveys dgtal photography, cyberspace
exchange and computer games - as well as a more famlar
50 'Postmodernism and Postmodernity in China: an Agenda for Inquiry', New
Literary History, Winter 1997, p. 144.
122
r
AFTER- EFFECTS
landscape of automobles, malls, grafnt, detrtus, televson
tself - asprenguratons of a future mass culturethat threatens
to supersede the spectacle tself, asknown htherto, by effacng
the boundares between the perceved and the enacted
altogether. Vth ths development, the new technques coniure
the possblty of a self-sealed unverse ofsmulaton capable of
velng - andsonsulatng - theorderofcaptalmorecompletely
than ever. A quet gravty of tone, and precson of detal,
characterzethsunseasonableargument.
ut ts logc s n one sgnncant respect at varance wth ts
framework. Stallabrasswllhavelttletruckwthanytalkofthe
postmodern, and holds to a radcal separatonofrch andpoor
zones oftheworld - whch, he suggests, ts one ofthecrucal
functons of mass culture to mask.`' ut a more plausble
deducton ponts the other way. ]he technologes he explores
are n both tmng and effect pre-emnently postmodern, f the
term has any meanng at all, and they wll surely not, as he
sometmes seem to assume, reman connned to the IrstVorld.
Computer games already have a thrvng market n the ]hrd.
lere too, as wth televson, the arrval of novel knds of
connexon and smulatonwlltend to unfy rather thandvde
the urban centres of the comng century, even across vast
dfferencesn average ncomes. Solong asthe system ofcaptal
prevals, each new advance n the ndustry of mages ncreases
the radus ofthe postmodern. !nthat sense, tcanbeargued,ts
globaldomnancesvrtuallyforeordaned.
]ameson`s own demonstraton proceeds at another level. for
hm, as always, the proof of the puddng s n the cultural
practces themselves. ]he salence of a postmodern that s no
longer occdental can be i udged from exemplary works of
perphery. ]he modernst format of Cde`s Counterfeiters, a.

ts moral resoluton, serve as benchmarks for ther startl
contemporarytransformatonn Idward Yang`sTerrorizer, and
ts relaton to the new wave nlms n ]awan that form, |.
]ameson`s vew, 'a lnked cycle more satsfyng for the vewer
than any natonal cnema ! know ' save perhaps the Irench
` Gargantua - Manufactured Mass Culture, London 1997, pp. 6-7, 1 0-1 1 , 75-77,
214, 230-231.
123
productons of the 2Os and JOs ` . I n not dssmilar fashon,
recht`s concepton of Umfunktionierung becomes tselfunpre-
dctably retooled n the 'dgnhed hlarty` of Kdlat ]ahmk`s
Perfumed Nightmare, where the standard oppostons of cul-
tural natonalsm - Irst and ]hrd Vorlds, old and new - are
battered out of shape nto ramshackle compostes, as ngen-
ouslyservceableastheIlpnoi eepneytself.
Itwould be hardtothnk ofsympathes lessIurocentrcthan
these, or more congruent wth Vollen`s concerns. In fact, the
Zaros panters or geran muscans wth whom Raiding the
Icebox concludes, creatve devsers ofa 'para-tourst art` nsep-
arable from the effects of postmodern travel, teach the same
lesson. that 'the choce between an authentc natonalsm and a
homogenzng modernty wll become more and more out-
moded` . `` ]he hnal emphass n both crtcs s the same.
symptoms of sterlty and provncalsm n the metropols,
notatonsofmagnatverenewalntheperphery.]hepostmod-
ern may also sgnfyths. 'It sbecause nlate captalsm and n
ts world system even the center s margnalzed`, wrtes]ame-
son, that 'expressons of the margnally uneven and unevenly
developed issung from a recent experence of captalsm are
often morntense and powerful`, and 'above all more deeply
symptomatc and meanngfulthananythngthe enfeebledcenter
stllhndstselfabletosay` .`'
Politics
Uneven development. symptomatc meanng. ]hese areterms of
art whch brng us to a hnal crux n ]ameson`s work. At the
5
i
The Geopolitical Aesthetic - Cinema and Space in the World System, London
1992, pp. 120, 211.
5 3 Raiding the Icebox, pp. 197, 202-204.
54 The Geopolitical Aesthetic, p. 155. Jameson's comments on the vacuity of high
metropolitan forms in North America, and more widely in the First World, have
been consistently - on occasion, it might be argued, even unduly - sharp. See, as
examples, his interview in Lef Curve, No 12, 1988; 'Americans Abroad: Exogamy
and Letters in Late Capitalism', in Steven Bell et al. (eds), Critical Theory, Cultural
Politics and Latin American Narrative, Notre Dame 1991; introduction to South
Atlantic Quarterly special issue on postmodernism in Latin America, Summer 1993.
124
AFTER- EFFECTS
headofhs hrstmaiorbook,Marxism and Form, there reads an
epgraph from Mallarmc. 'Il n'existe d'ouvert c Ia recherche
mentale que deux voies, en tout, ou bifurque notre besoin, c
savoir, l'esthetique d'une part et aussi l'economie politique'.55
Reteratng tonce agan nPostmodernism asthevery emblem
of hs enterprse, ]ameson glossed the dctum as a 'percepton
shared by both dscplnes of the mmense dual movement ofa
plane ofform and a plane ofsubstance`` the hdden concord
of lielmslev and Marx. ]he sense n whch ]ameson`s oeuvre
can be seen as a culmnaton oftheVesternMarxst tradton
has been ndcated above. ]he long sut of that tradton was
always aesthetc, and ]ameson has played an extraordnary
hand wth t. ut underlyng the aesthetc enqurres ofths lne
of thnkers, of course, there was always a set of economc
categores derved from Capital that nformed ther focus and
drecton. ]he work of a Iukacs or Adorno s unthnkable
wthout ths constant, mmanent reference. At the same tme,
the tradton tself produced no sgnhcant development n the
neld of poltcal economy asMarx- or Iuxemburg or llferd-
ng- understoodt. leret reled on anntellectuallegacyt dd
not extend. An alternatve classcal tradton, that dd seek to
pursue Marxst economc analyss nto the era of the Creat
Depresson, was generally gnored. y the end of the Second
VorldVar,thslnetselfhadlapsed.
]huswhen, twenty years later- attheheght ofthepostwar
boom - ]ameson was startng towrte,the dvorce betweenthe
aesthetc and economc dmensons ofa culture of the left was
attswdest. lsownworktookupthegreataesthetctradton.
ut when the economc tradton revved at the start of
seventes,asworldcaptalsmbegantssldentoalong
wave, t s strkng how actvely and creatvely he
t. ]he decsve role of Irnest Mandel`s Late
stmulatng hs turn towards a theory of postmodernsm
already been noted. ]hs was nostraynlluence. In The Cultural
55 'Magie', Oeuvres, Paris 1945, p. 399. Jameson renders this as: 'Only two paths
stand open to mental research: aesthetics, and also political economy' (Postmodern
ism, p. 427), which omits the crucial 'where our need divides'.
125
Turn, ]ameson hasnotably developed hs account oIthe post
modernthroughanorgnalappropratonoICovannArrgh` s
Long Twentieth Century, whosesynthessoIMarxand raudel
oIIers the most ambtous nterpretaton oI the overall hstory
oI captalsm attempted to date. lere the dynamc oIhnance
captal on the 'plane oI substance` releases a movement oI
Iragmentatononthe 'plane oIIorm` , traceableallthewayIrom
the hlmc prevew to postmodern collages oIthe commonplace.
Ineachcase,theeconomcreIerent Iunctons notas an external
support, butasannternal elementoIthe aesthetcconstructon
tselI. ]he hnal text n the same volume, ']he rck and the
alloon`,hnts at away Davd larvey`s Limits to Capital could
playanotdssmlarrole.`'
Mallarmc`stwo paths are thusreioned. utIthe obi ectve s
a contnuaton oIMarx`sproiectntoa postmodernworld, are
the aesthetc andeconomctheexclusvelnesoImarch:Vhere
does ths leave the poltcal: Its trace s not Iorgotten n the
motvatng dctum. Mallarmc speaks, aIter all, not oI econ
omcs, but oIpoltcal economy. ]hs canoncal term, however,
s less unequvocal than t seems. rgnally desgnatng the
classcalsystems oISmth, Rcardo andMalthus,twasprecsely
the obiectoIMarx`scrtque,butwhentheneo-classcaltheores
oIValras,]evonsandMengerbecameestablshedasorthodoxy,
wth the margnalst revoluton, Marx hmselI was assmlated
to the predecessors wth whom he had broken, as so many
Iossls oI the pre-hstory oI the dscplne - the crtque oI
poltcal economy becomng no more than ts dogmatc last
chapter. In reacton, later Marxsts would oIten clam the
tradtonasndeedtherown,n oppostonto theIormalsmoI
'pure` economcs codhed by the hers oI the neo-classcal
thnkers.utassuch,tremanedaresdualcategory - 'poltcal`
onlynsoIarastexceededthecalculusoIthemarket,towards
a socalreIerenceotherwseleItndetermnate. ]hs weak sense
wasneversuIhcenttodehneMarx`spartcularlegacy.
ut I the poetc adage leaves no ndependent space Ior the
poltcal, ths hgures promnently elsewhere, n the ttle oI
The Cultural Turn, pp. 136-144 ff. , 1 84-1 85 ff.
126
AFTER- EFFECTS
]ameson`s most systematc theoretcal work n the held of
lterature tself. The Political Unconscious opens wth the
words. ']hs book wll argue the prorty of the poltcal
nterpretaton of lterary texts. It conceves of the poltcal
perspectve not as some supplementary method, not as an
optonalauxlaryto other nterpretve methodscurrenttoday-
the psychoanalytc orthe myth-crtcal, the stylstc, the ethcal,
the structural - but as the absolute horzon of all readng, and
all nterpretaton`. ]ameson notes that ths poston wll seem
extreme. ut ts meanng s speltouta fewpages later,wththe
declaraton. ']here s nothngthat s not socal and hstorcal-
ndeed, everythng s n the last nstance" poltcal` . ` ]hs s
the comprehensve sense of the term that gves ts force to the
book`s ttle. Vthn the nterpretve strategy to whch t pro-
ceeds,however,theresanotherandlesserspaceofthepoltcal,
understood n a more restrctve sense. In ths mode ]ameson
arguesthatthere are 'three concentrc frameworkswhchmark
outthesenseofthesocalgroundofatext,throughthenotons,
hrst ofpoltcal hstory, n the narrow sense of punctual event
and chroncle-lke happenngs n tme, then of socety, n the
now already less dachronc and tmebound sense ofa consttu-
tve tensonand struggle between socal classes, and, ultmately,
ofhstorynow conceved n ts vastest sense ofthe sequence of
modes of producton and the successon and destny of the
varous human socal formatons, fromprehstorclfeto what-
everfarfuturehstoryhasnstoreforus` .
lere there saclearherarchy,runnng fromthefundamental
to the superhcal. economc socal poltcal. In the latter,
'hstorysreduced`- theverbndcateswhatslkelytofollow-
to 'the dachroncagtatonof theyear-to-year,thechronicle-h
annalsoftherseandfallofpoltcal regmes and socalfhi
and the passonate mmedacy of struggles between hstor
ndvduals`.' Vhat ths recalls, perhaps more than anythng
else, s raudel`s descrpton of l'histoire evenementielle n his
famousterofhstorcaltmes - thatevanescentfoamofepsodes
58 The Political Unconscious, pp. 1 7, 20.
59 The Political Unconscious, p. 75.
6U
The Political Unconscious, pp. 76-77.
127
and ncdents whch he comparedtothe surfonthewavesfrom
Afrca, breakng mmemorally onthe shores ofahaunderthe
fantlght ofthe stars. ]he formal smlartes betweenthe two
trpartte schemas, adiustng for the geographcal rather than
economc emphass of l'histoire immobile, are evdent enough.
Vhat they seem to share s a reserve towards the poltcal
conceved n a strongsense - that s, as anndependentdoman
ofacton,pregnantwthtsownconsequences.
In raudel`s case, ths retcence s coherent wth the whole
structureandprogramme ofhswork. Inthe caseofa Marxst,
tmghtbedoubtedwhetherthscouldbe so.]ameson,however,
has offered reasons why t mght be. In the most calculatedly
shockng ofhstexts,hesuggestsa naturalknshpbetweenone
of the most extreme versons of neo-lberalsm - the unversal
modellng of human behavour as utlty-maxmzaton by the
Chcago economst Cary ecker - and socalsm, n so far as
both do away wth the need for any poltcal thought. ']he
tradtonal complant about Marxsm that t lacks any autono-
mous poltcal retlecton`, he wrtes, 'tends to strke one as a
strength rather than aweakness` . IorMarxsmsnotapoltcal
phlosophy, and whle 'there certanly s a Marxstpractce of
poltcs, Marxst poltcal thnkng, when t s not practcal n
thatway, hasexclusvelyto dowththeeconomcorganzaton
of socety and how people cooperate to organze producton`.
]heneo-lberalbelefthatncaptalsmonlythemarketmatters
s thus a close cousn ofthe Marxstvewthat whatcountsfor
socalsm splannng.netherhaveanytmeforpoltcaldsqus-
tons n ther ownrght. 'Ve have much n commonwth the
neo-lberals,nfactvrtuallyeverythng - savetheessentals | ` .
ehndthe buoyantprovocatonoftheselneslesaconvcton
of prncple - t s no accdent Mallarmc`s formula reappears
iust here.` ut they also correspond to a sense of mmedate
62 For Jameson's fullest meditation on Mallarmi"s dictum, and its effects for concep
tions of politics, see his interview in the Cairene journal A/if, 'On Contemporary
Marxist Theory', No 10, 1990, pp. 124-129, after a course taught in Egypt.
It should be said that Mallarme himself is not to be reduced to the dichotomy of
Magie. During the Mac-Mahon crisis of 1 876-77, when the constitution of the
Third Republic hung in the balance, he published an article in La Republique des
128
AFTER- EFFECTS
prorties. Returnng tohs trpartte scheme atthe end ofThe
Geopolitical Aesthetic, ]ameson remarks of]ahmk`s hlm that
what s nstructve about t s 'the way n whch here the
economcdmensonhas cometotakeprecedenceoverapoltcal
one whch s not left out or repressed, but whch s for the
moment assgned a subordnate poston and role` . Ior ths s a
general lesson of the tme. In the present coniuncture, ofpost-
modernty, 'our most urgent task wll be trelessly to denounce
the economc forms that have come for the moment to regn
supreme andunchallenged`- 'a rehcatonandcommodhcaton
Lettres declaring that 'nothing less than the sovereignty of the people' was at stake,
under the rubric of - indeed - La Politique. For the text, see P. S. Hambly, 'Un
article oublie de Stephane Mallarme', Revue d'Histoire Litteraire de Ia France,
January-February 1989, pp. 82-84. It was in this - intensely eventful - context that
he issued the famous ringing statement: 'The participation of a hitherto ignored
people in the political life of France is a social fact that will honour the whole of the
close of the nineteenth century. A parallel is found in artistic matters, the way being
prepared by an evolution which the public with rare prescience dubbed, from its
frst appearance, intransigent, which in political language means radical and
democratic' (in 'The Impressionists and EdouardManet', September 1 876). Two
decades later, it was the Panama crisis of 1 893 that set the stage for Mallarme's
retur to political commentary with the text that became Or, the frst of ' Grands
Faits Divers' collected in Divagations, of which Magie was the second in time, from
the same year. Both breathe an indomitable aversion to the fetishism of fnance, the
alchemy of speculation. Fumee le milliard, hors le temps d'y faire main basse: ou, le
manque d'eblouissement voire d'interet accuse qu'elire un dieu n'est pas pour le
confner a l'ombre des coffes de fer et des poches - La pierre nulle, qui reve !'or,
dite philosophale: mais elle annonce, dans Ia fnance, le futur credit, precedant le
capital ou le reduisant a l'humilite de monnaie! - see Oeuvres, pp. 398, 400. 'A
billion is smoke, beyond the time to get your hands on it: or, the lack of
bedazzlement even of interest indicates that a god is not elected to be confne
the shadow of iron coffers and pockets - The stone is null which dreams of
called philosophical: but it announces in fnance a future credit, preceding C
and reducing it to the humility o cash!] Topical thoughts indeed, that could
head Jameson's penultimate essay in The Cultural Turn.
When Mallarme came to write his series of articles 'Variations sur un Sujet' in L
Revue Blanche during 1 895, Dreyfus had been sentenced and the political clouds of
the Affair were gathering. By now his disillusion with the Opportunist parliamentary
regimes of the time was complete. ]aunes effondrements de banques aux squames
de pus et le candide camelot apport ant a Ia rue une reforme qui lui eel ate en Ia main,
ce repertoire - a defaut, le pietinement de Chambres otl le vent-coulis se distrait a
des crises ministerielles - compose, hors de leur drame propre a quai les humains
129
that havc bccomc sounvcrsalzcd asto sccm wcll-ngh natural
and organc cnttcs` . '` [vcn thc poltcs oI natonal lbcraton
tsclIcanonlybcnscrbcdnthslargcrbattlc.
]amcson`s thcorctcal programmc - wc mght call t, n
honour oIts cpgraph, amatcralstsymbolsm- hasthusbccn
Iormdablyconsstcnt. ts cohcrcncc can bcvcrhcda contrario
by thc onc sgnhcant abscncc n ts appropraton oI thc
Vcstcrn Narxst rcpcrtorc. or that tradton was not wthout
a suprcmcly poltcal momcnt. Antono Cramsc sthconcgrcat
namc substantally mssng Irom thc roll-call oI Marxism and
Form. n part, that s no doubt duc to thc sdclong poston oI
taly n ]amcson`s mposng usuIruct oI thc rcsourccs oI [uro-
pcan culturc as a wholc, whcrc rancc, Ccrmany and [ngland
arc thc lands oI rcIcrcncc. ut t s also that Cramsc`s work,
sont aveugles, le spectacle quotidien see Oeuvres, p. 414. [Yellow collapses of
banks with scales of pus and the candid hawker bringing to the street a reform that
bursts in his hand, this repertory - or failing that, the stalling of Assemblies where
wafts of air distract themselves with Ministerial crises - composes, beyond their
own drama to which humans are blind, the daily spectacle.] The text from which
this passage comes, La Cour ('pour s'aliener les partis'), is the most revealing of
Mallarme's interventions of that year - a remarkable example of the fusion of
'aristocratic' and 'proletarian' motifs in the avant-garde culture of the time. To
gauge the import of Mallarme's articles in La Revue Blanche, it is necessary to
remember their context. They appeared in the same issues of the journal, not just
with drawings by Toulouse, Vallotton or Bannard, but side by side with laudatory
articles on Bakunin, Herzen, Proudhon and Marx - a celebratory review by Charles
Andler on the publication of the Third Volume of Capital; not to speak of an
eleven-part serialization of the memoirs of the enrage General Rossignol, Hebertiste
commander in the suppression of the Vendee, honoured with a heroic representation
by Vuillard. See La Revue Blanche, 1 895, VIII, pp. 175-178, 289-299, 391-395,
450-454; IX, pp. 51-63, etc.; and for the frst note on Dreyfus, attacking his
'ingenious torturers on Devil's Island', see VIII, p. 408.
A careful study of Mallarme's political development has yet to be written. The
belated publication of a substantial section of Sartre's projected work on the poet,
dating from 1952, suggests what we have missed: see 'L'Engagement de Mallarme',
Obliques, No 18-19, 1979, now available as Mallarme - La Lucidite et sa Face
d'Ombre, Paris, 1986. The disappearance of the full manuscript must be accounted
a major loss. The fragment that survives makes it clear that this would in all
probability have been Sartre's true biographical chef d'oeuvre: richer in detail and
sharper in focus than his subsequent account of Flaubert.
63 The Geopolitical Aesthetic, p. 212.
130
AFTER- EFFECTS
the productof a Communst leader nprson, retlectng onthe
defeat of one revoluton and the ways to possble vctory of
another, does not ht the bfurcaton of the aesthetc and
economc. It was emnently poltcal, as a theory of the state
and cvl socety, and a strategy for ther qualtatve transfor
maton. ]hs body of thought s by-passed n]ameson`s extra
ordnaryresumptonofVesternMarxsm.
Vho can say thaths ntuton was wrong: ]he grandeur of
the Sardnan s stranded today, amd the mpasse of the
ntellectual tradton he represented, plan for all to see. ]he
current of hstory has passed elsewhere. If the legaces of
Irankfurt orIarsorudapestremanmore avalable, ts also
becausetheywereless poltcal- thats,subiectto the'contn
gences and reversals` pecular to l'histoire evenementielle as
]ameson has seen t. ]he purhcaton of Vestern Marxsm to
theaesthetc andeconomchas, asthngsstand,beenvndcated.
]he theory of postmodernsm as the cultural logc of late
captalsm s ts dazzlng ssue. Yet at the same tme, precsely
here the forcluson of the poltcal poses a paradox. ]ameson
construesthepostmodernasthatstagencaptalstdevelopment
when culture becomes n effect coextensvewth the economy.
Vhat s the approprate stance, then, of the crtc wthn ths
culture: ]ameson`s answer rests on a three-fold dstncton.
]here s taste, or opnon, that sa set ofsubiectve preferences
- n thems oInfIc nterest - for partcular works of art.
]hen there s analyss, or the ce study of 'the hstorcal
co of possblty of peforms` . Inally fhcrcs
aluaton, whch nvolves no aesthetc i udgements n the tra-
dsense, but rather seeks to 'nterrogate the qualty of
socal lfe by way of the text or ndvdual work of art,
hazard an assessment ofthe poltcal effects ofculturalurr
or movements wth less utltaransm and a greater s
pt
for the dynamcs of everyday lfe than 1he mprmaturs and
ndexesofearlertradtons`.`
]ameson, whle avowng some personal enthusasms as a
consumer of contemporary culture, sets no specal store by
64 Ibid.
65 Postmodernism, p. 298 f.
131
thcm. Jhc task oIhstorcal and Iormal analyss, onthc othcr
hand, has bccn thc maior part oI hs work as a thcorst and
crtc - most systcmatcally artculatcd n The Political Uncon
scious. Vhatthcn oI cvaluaton: Iwc look atPostmodernism,
what wchnd arc unIorgcttablc ctchngs oIthc qualty oIlIc n
ths hstorcal Iorm, wth 'ts ntcrnal quotcnt oImscry andthc
dctcrmnatc potcntalty oI bodly and sprtual transhguraton
t also aIIords, or conqucrs`.''utoIcalbraton oIthc 'poltcal
cIIccts oI cultural movcmcnts` , thcrc s sgnhcantly lcss. Jhc
^cw Socal Novcmcnts do hgurc, as a now standard topos, n
]amcson`s survcy oI thc postmodcrn, whcrc thcy arc vcwcd
wth sympathy, but also a wary cauton aganst nf|atcd clams
madc on thcr bchalI. ut thcr nvocaton swthout dctal or
dIIcrcntaton, pcrhaps bccauscthcyarcnotnthchrstnstancc
- as thcr namc mplcs - cultural movcmcnts stricto sensu at
all. A morc appostc casc s oIIcrcd by thc ant-nsttutonal
conccptualsm rcprcscntcd by artsts lkc Maackc, whosc strat-
cgy oI 'undcrmnng thc magc by way oI thc magc tsclI` s
capturcd graphcally, I brcf|y.' utths s a rclatvclysolatcd
rcIcrcncc,thatonlytcndstoundcrlncthcIactthatthcrcarcnot
manyothcrs.
uts notths,tmghtbcaskcd,aIarrcf|cctonoIthc actual
paucty oI oppostonal- or ndccd many postonal - cultural
movcmcnts n thc postmodcrn: Ccrtanly, thc cclpsc oIorgan-
zcd avant-gardcs, and thc dcclnc oI class poltcs that const-
tutcs ts wdcr hstorcal background, arc powcrIully rcgstcrcd
by ]amcson n thcsc samc pagcs. ut thcy sccm nsuIhccnt n
thcmsclvcs - Ior ncthcr arc absolutcs - to cxplan thc dstancc
bctwccn promsc and dclvcry. Mcrc somc dccpcr dIhcultymay
bc at work. ]amcson`s marragc oI acsthctcs and cconomcs
yclds a wondrous totalzaton oI postmodcrn culturc as a
wholc, whosc opcraton oI 'cogntvc mappng` acts - and ths
s ts ntcnton - as a placcholdcr oIdalcctcal rcsstancc to t.
uttspontoIlcvcragcncccssarlyrcmansnthatscnscoutsdc
thc systcm. nsdc t,]amcson was morc conccrncd to montor
than to adiudcatc. At ths lcvcl, hc has consstcntly warncd oI
132
l
.
l
I_
AFTER- EFFECTS
thc dangcrsoItoocasydcnuncatonoIspcchcIormsortrcnds,
asptIallsoIa stcrlcmoralsm. Jhat dd not mcan, nthcothcr
drccton, any conccssons to populsm, Ior whch ]amcson has
ncvcrhad much nclnaton. Jhcrc, hsrcbukcto cultural studcs
can bc takcn as a gcncral motto. 'Jhc standardzaton oI
consumpton s lkc a sound barrcr whch conIronts thc
cuphora oIpopulsm as a Iact oIlIc and a physcal law at thc
uppcr rcachcs oIthcsystcm` . '
Stll, t rcmans truc that Postmodernism contans no sus-
tancd attackonanyspcchcbodyoIworkormovcmcntwthn
thc culturc t dcpcts, n thc convcntonal scnsc oI thc tcrm. n
part, ths s no doubt a qucston oI psychc cconomy - ths sort
oI thng has anyway ncvcr much attractcd ]amcson`s cncrgcs,
Irom cach accordngtothcrtcmpcramcnt. utthatthcrc s also
a thcorctcal ssuc at stakc can bc sccn, pcrhaps, Irom a
sgnhcant tcnson - vcry unusual n ths wrtcr - n]amcson`s
handlng oI a thcmc oI ccntral mportancc to hs thought.
namcly, utopan longng. Jhc oscllaton, pontcd out by ctcr
[ittin,is this.69 Cn thc onc hand.hc has insistcd itis onc ol
hs most darng and dstnctvc thcmcs - that utopan mpulscs
arc nhcrcntly at work n thc rchcd productsoImass commcr-
cal culturc too, sncc thcsc 'cannot bc dcologcal wthout at
onc and thc samc tmc bcngmplctly or cxplctly utopan as
wcll, thcy cannot manpulatc unlcss thcy oIIcr somc gcnunc
shrcd oIcontcnt as a Iantasy brbc to thc publc about to bc so
manpulatcd` - a brbc that wll consst n somc hguraton, no
mattcr howdstortcdor burcd, oIa rcdccmcd collcctvc ordcr.
JhsIuncton]amcsontcrmsthcr'transccndcntpotcntal - that
dmcnson oI cvcn thc most dcgradcd typc oI mass culturc`
whch rcmans 'ncgatvc and crtcal oI thc socal ordcr rm
whch, as a product and a commodty, t sprngs`. Jhc h
whchllustratcthc argumcnt arcJaws and The Godfather.
n thc othcr hand, rcprcscntatons oI utopa propcr n hgh
culturc - Irom Norc to latonov to IcCun - arc nvarably
hcld to dcmonstratc that ths s iust what wc cannot magnc.
' On Cultural Studies', Social Text, No 34, 1993, p. 51 .
Paper at conference on postmodernism held at Changsha, Hunan, i n June 1997.

70 Signatures of the Visible, p. 29.
133
'\topa`s dccpcstsubicct` turns outtobc'prccscly ournablty
to conccvc t, our ncapacty to producc t as a vson, our
Ialurc to proicct thc thcr oI what s, a Ialurc that, as wth
hrcworks dssolvng back nto thc nght sky, must oncc agan
lcavc us alonc wth this hstory` . '' Jhs mpotcncc, ]amcson
nssts, s consttutonal. Vhat mass culturc can ntmatc, ulo-
pan hcton cannot cmbody. s thcrc a common mcasurc
bctwccnIndependence Day and Chevengur, orsthsanapora:
Jhc most rclcvant pont, pcrhaps, lcs clscwhcrc. ô poltcal
crtcronsgvcnIordscrmnatngbctwccndIIcrcnthguratons
oIutopanlongng,cthcrncommcrcal dsguscor nprophctc
magnaton. ut how can such Iorms bc scparatcd Irom thcr
substancc - thc shapc oI a poltcal drcam: Can iudgcmcnts
bctwccn thcm bc avodcd: Mcrc, poscd n ts most acutc Iorm,
s thc morc gcncral problcm rascd by thc postonng oI thc
postmodcrnbctwccnacsthctcs andcconomcs.
or mssng n ths bIurcaton s a scnsc oI culturc as a
battlchcld, that dvdcs ts protagonsts. Jhat s thc planc oI
poltcs, undcrstood as a spacc nts ownrght. Vc do nothavc
to ycldto scctarantcmptatonswthnNarxsm,orovcrhcatcd
conccptons oI an avant-gardc, to rcalzc ths. Such an undcr-
standng gocs back to Kant, Ior whom phlosophy tsclI was
consttutcdas a Kampfplatz a notonnthc ar oIthc Ccrman
[nlghtcnmcnt, whosc mltary thcorzaton camc a gcncraton
latcr n Clauscwtz. t was a maior thnkcr oI thc Rght who
gavc conscqucnt cxprcsson to ths cmphass n thc hcld oI
poltcs. Schmtt`sdchnton oIthcpoltcal asnscparablcIrom
a dvson bctwccn Ircnd and Ioc s, oI coursc, not cxhaustvc.
ut that t capturcs an nclmnablc dmcnson oI all poltcs s
scarcclyto bcdoubtcd, andtsthatscnscoIthcpoltcalwhch
bcars on thc culturc oI thc postmodcrn. Jo rccall ths s notto
summon any ntruson. Jhc acsthctc and thc poltcal arc
ccrtanly not to bc cquatcd or conIuscd. ut I thcy can bc
mcdatcd, t s bccausc thcy sharc onc thng n common. oth
arc nhcrcntly commttcd to crtcal iudgcmcnt. dscrmnaton
bctwccnworksoIart, IormsoIstatc.AbstcntonIromcrtcsm,
n cthcr, s subscrpton. ostmodcrnsm, lkc modcrnsm, s a
'The Ideologies of Theory, Vol 2, p. 101.
134
AFTER- EFFECTS
hcld oItcnsons. vson sanncscapablccondtonoI cngagc-
mcntwtht.
]ust ths can bc sccnIrom]amcson`stcxtssnccPostmodern
ism, as thc nflcxon oI hs wrtng on thc postmodcrn has
bccomc stcadly sharpcr. or what thcy tracc s, n cIIcct, an
nvoluton. ostmodcrnsm, ]amcson now suggcsts, canalrcady
bc pcrodzcd. AItcr ts nrst crcatvc rclcasc n thc scvcntcs -
that 'thundcrous unblockng oI cncrgcs`, oI whosc rclcI hc
orgnally wrotc''- thcrc has Iollowcd a pcrccptblc rcgrcsson
n thc mostrcccntpcrod, dclncatcd n thc cssays on thc '[nd
oI Art` and 'JransIormatons oI thc magc` n The Cultural
Turn. n thc onc hand, thc postmodcrnrclcascIrom thc bonds
oI thc modcrn Sublmc ' ' dwcllng among dcad monumcnts` ,
orgnallyancmancpaton, hastcndcdtodcgcncratcnto a ncw
cult oI thc cautIul, that rcprcscnts a 'colonzaton oI rcalty
gcncrally by spatal and vsualIorms` that s also 'a commodh-
caton oI that samc ntcnsvcly colonzcd rcalty on a world
scalc`.'` Vth ths dcgradcd acsthctcsm, art appcars to snk
backonccaganntoaculnarycondton.Atthcsamctmc,thc
ntcllcctual lbcratonwroughtwththc comng oIJhcory, as a
brcak-down oI barrcrs bctwccn osshcd dscplncs and thc
cmcrgcncc oI morc ambtous and uncxpcctcd stylcs oIthought,
has undcrgonc a rcgrcsson too. or thc latcst phasc has sccn a
rcnstatcmcnt oI all thc outdatcd autarchcs that thc dc-dIIcr-
cntatng mpulscs oI postmodcrnsm sought to swccp away,
startngwthcthcsandacsthctcsthcmsclvcs.
Suchrccdvsm, Ior]amcson,snotrrcvcrsblc. thcpostmod-
crn sprt could takc othcr turns. ut I wc ask oursclvcs what
thc cultural sldc hc crtczcs mght corrcspond to, thc answcr
s chronologcally clcar. Vhcn ]amcson hrst startcd wrti
about postmodcrnsm n thc carly cghtcs, thc rcgmcs
Rcaganand Jhatchcr wcrcalrcady scttng thc pacc nthcc
thc \SSR was m thc last throcs oI rczhncvsm, and
lbcraton a IadngmcmorynmostoIthcJhrd Vorld. utthc
world-wdctrumphoIcaptalsm was stll to comc. [vcnashc
hnshcd Postmodernism, at thc thrcshold oI thc nnctcs, thc
Postmodernism, p. 313.
7 3 See The Cultural Turn, p. 87.
135
Sovct statc stll nomnally cxstcd. t sthc complctc cxtncton
oI thc Communst altcrnatvc, ts vrtual dclcton Irom thc
hstorcal rccord, Iollowcd by thc rclcntlcss advancc oI nco-
lbcralsm through thc Jhrd Vorld, clmnatng onc vcstgc oI
cconomc autonomy aItcr anothcr - a proccss now rollng
through thc last bastons oI [ast Asa tsclI - that Iorms thc
background to ]amcson`s nowmorcuncompromsngtonc. Jhc
dcologcal thcmcs oI thc cnd oI hstory, thc haltng oI tmc at
thc bournc oIlbcralcaptalsm, bccomc thc obicctoIa dctotal-
zng rony n thc magnhccnt 'Antnomcs oI ostmodcrnty`
( 1994) , wth ts rcdcsgn oIKantan catcgorcs Ior our contcm-
porary cnlghtcnmcnt, and thcn morc drcctly agan n '[nd oI
Art - [nd oI Mstory: ` tsclI( 1996) , whch coolly swtchcs thc
lnc oI
oievc and ukuyama to an unschcdulcd tcrmnus.'

thcrtcxtssoundthc 'statcoIthc dcbt` to Narx. A maiorwork
onrcchtwllbcwthussoon.'`
Jhcsc statcmcnts arc poltcal ntcrvcntons at Iull tlt. n thc
past, ]amcson`s wrtng was somctmcs taxcd wth bcng nsuI-
hccntly cngagcd wththcrcal world oImatcral conflcts - class
strugglcs or natonal rsngs - and so hcld 'unpoltcal` . Jhat
was always a msrcadng oI ths unwavcrngly commttcd
thnkcr. Mcrc, wc havc notcd a thcorctcal rcscrvc towards thc
'cvcntIul` that could lcad to hstorcal totalzaton wthout
punctual dvsonsnthc cultural arcna - traccablc, ccrtanly, to
a dsnclnaton to ycld autonomy to thc poltcal, but thc
oppostc oI ts abncgaton. rathcr ts absorpton nto thc vcry
shapc oI thc totalty tsclI. Jhs has shItcd, towards grcatcr
triage. ut consdcratons lkc thcsc rcIcr nwards, to thc prob-
lcms oI cultural thcoryassuch.nthclargcrrclatonshp oIths
body oIwritngtothcoutwardworld,]amcson`svocc has bccn
wthout cqual n thc clarty and cloqucncc oI ts rcsstancc to
thc drccton oI thc tmc. Vhcn thc IcIt was morc numcrous
andconhdcnt, hsthcorctcalwork kcpt accrtandstanccIrom
mmcdatc cvcnts. As thc IcIt has bccomc ncrcasngly solatcd
and bclcagucrcd, and lcss capablc oI magnng any altcrnatvc
74 See The Cultural Turn, pp. 50-72 and 73-92.
75 See 'Marx's Purloined Letter', New Left Review, No 209, January-February
1995; and Brecht and Method (forthcoming), London-New York 1998.
136
AFTER- EFFECTS
to thc cxistmg socal ordcr, ]amcson has spokcn cvcr morc
drcctlyto thc poltcalcharactcr oI thc agc, brcakngthc spcll
oIthcsystcm.
wthwhatvolcnccbcncvolcnccsbought
whatcostingcsturciustcc brngs
whatwrongs domcstcrghtsnvolvc
whatstalks
thsslcncc
137
nUCX
Adenauer, Konrad 85
Adorno, Theodor 4 7, 60, 69-70,
71, 76, 107, 108, 1 1 7, 122, 125
Ahmad, Ai jaz 119
Albers, Josef 9 5
Althusser, Louis 71, 74, 76
Anaximander 12
Andler, Charles 130
Ando, Tadao 108
Andrade, Mario de 4
Antin, David 15, 96
Apollinaire, Guillaume 15
Arac, Jonathan 122
Arrighi, Giovanni 126
Ashbery, John 18, 103
Ashcroft, Bill 119
Asher, Michael 101
Auden, Wystan 15
Aulard, Fran<ois-Alphonse 102
Bakunin, Mikhail 130
Balzac, Honore de 50
Barnet, Miguel 7 5
Barth, John 1 8
Bartheleme, Donald 1 8
Barthes, Roland 47, 50-51
Bataille, Georges 39, 40
Baudelaire, Charles 37, 85, 87
Baudrillard, Jean 28, 52
Becker, Gary 128
Beckett, Samuel 17, 19, 67
Bell, Daniel 25, 37, 40
Belting, Hans 97-99
Benamou, Michael 24
Benjamin, Walter 47, 48, 69-70,
76, 122
Benn, Gottfried 39, 40
Berque, Jacques 17
Blanqui, Auguste 90
Bloch, Ernst 47, 70, 71
Bofll, Ricardo 108
Bannard, Pierre 13 0
Borges, Jorge Luis 4
Bove, Paul 1 6
Braude!, Fernand 127-128
Brecht, Bertolt 48, 85, 104,
1 1 1-112, 117
Breton, Andre 70
Brezhnev, Leonid 91, 135
Broodthaers, Marcel 101
Brown, Denise Scott 20, 106
Buchloh, Benjamin 97
Buren, Daniel 101
Burroughs, William 67
Butterwick, George 9
Cabral, Amilcar 90
Cage, John 17-18, 27, 95
139
I NDEX
Callinicos, Alex 78-80, 91
Calvin, Jean 114
Caramello, Charles 24
Carter, Jimmy 92
Castoriadis, Cornelius 28
Celine, Louis-Ferdinand 104
Chiang Kai -shek 8
Churchill, Winston 85
Cisse, Souleymane 75
Clark, T. ]. 83
Clausewitz, Karl von 134
Conrad, Joseph 74
Comeau, Alain 110
Cournot, Auguste 100
Craxi, Bettina 86
Creeley, Robert 7, 11
Crimp, Douglas 106
Croce, Benedetto 113
Crow, Thomas 104
Cunningham, Merce 27
D'Annunzio, Gabriele 103
Danto, Arthur 97, 99-100
Danton, Georges 102
Daria, Ruben 3
Davis, Mike 78
De Gasperi, Alcide 85
De Gaulle, Charles 85
De Man, Henri 100
De Man, Paul 61
Della Volpe, Galvano 69
Derrida, Jacques 103
Diaghilev, Sergei 103
Dickens, Charles 74
Dirlik, Arif 1 19
Doctorow, E. L. 61, 103
Dreyfus, Alfred 129-130
Duchamp, Marcel 18, 19, 24, 30,
95, 99, 101
During, Simon 1 19
Eagleton, Terry 78, 91, 115-1 1 7
Eichendorff, Josef von 74
Eisenhower, Dwight 7
Eisenmann, Peter 58, 102, 108
Eliot, Thomas Stearns 9, 15, 93,
103
Emerson, Ralph Waldo 60
Ensor, James 104
Etzioni, Amitai 14
Fan on, Franz 7 4
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb 100
Fiedler, Leslie 13-14, 57, 63, 64
Fitting, Peter 133
Flaubert, Gustave 74, 85, 87
Flavin, Dan 101
Foster, Hal 101, 106
Foster, Norman 23
Foucault, Michel 1 8, 39, 40, 61,
1 19, 120
Fourier, Charles 43, 90
Frampton, Kenneth 108
Freitas, Bezerra de 4
Fried, Michael 58, 62
Fuller, Buckminster 17
Gates, Bill 8 6
Gaudi, Antonio 22
Gehlen, Arnold 100
Gehry, Frank 58
George, Stefan 103
Gibson, William 1 12
Gide, Andre 123
Giscard d'Estaing, Valery 29
Gober, Robert 60
Godard, Jean-Luc 76, 84
Gramsci, Antonio 44, 69, 70, 73,
81, 1 12-1 14, 1 15, 1 30-131
Graves, Michael 23, 102, 108,
109
Greenaway, Peter 100
Greenberg, Clement 58, 83, 95,
99, 106
Greimas, Algirdas 4 7
140
I NDEX
Griffths, Gareth 119
Grosz, Georg 85
Guevara, Ernesto 90
Haacke, Hans 60, 101, 103, 1 32
Habermas, Jiirgen 36-46, 55, 57,
64
Harvey, David 78-79, 126
Hassan, Ihab 1 7-20, 23, 26, 45,
55, 57, 64, 67, 96, 106
Hebert, Jacques Rene 102
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm 76-77, 98,
99-100
Heidegger, Martin 11, 17
Hemingway, Erest 74
Herzen, Alexander 13 0
Hilferding, Rudolf 125
Hitler, Adolf 80
Hjelmslev, Louis 125
Ho Chi Minh 90
Hofmannsthal, Hugo von 103
Hollein, Hans 42
Hoover, Paul 103
Horkheimer, Max 69
Howe, Irving 12, 13, 14
Hughes, Robert 89
Hughes, Ted 103
Ibsen, Hendrik 85
lzenour, Steven 20
James, William 19
Jameson, Fredric vii, 47-77, 78,
84, 88-89, 91, 92, 107-110,
117-1 18, 120-137
Jarman, Derek 1 1 0
Jencks, Charles 22-24, 26, 30-31,
37, 45-6, 57, 64, 103
Jevons, William 126
Johns, Jasper 95, 101
Johnson, Samuel 115
Jorn, Asger 84
J6zsef, Attila 15
Joyce, James 93, 103
Judd, Donald 96, 101
Kafka, Franz 17, 93
Kant, Immanuel 31, 134
Karatani, Kojin 7 4
Khlebnikov, Velemir 15
Khrushchev, Nikita 90
Kier, Leon 42
Kieslowski, Krzysztof 110
Kojeve, Alexander 100
Koolhaas, Rem 58, 108, 109, 1 17
Korsch, Karl 69
Kosuth, Joseph 101, 117
Krauss, Rosalind 106
LaReuue/ancbe 129-130
Lacan, Jacques 27
Lang, Beryl 97
Lange, Oskar 7-8
Lao She 74
Larkin, Philip 103
Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard
Jeanneret) 42, 105
Le Guin, Ursula 133
Leduc, Paul viii, 75
Lefebvre, Henri 53, 69-70, 71
Leger, Fernand 104
Lenin, Vladimir 90
Levesque, Rene 24
Levin, Harry 13, 57, 64
Levinas, Emmanuel 25
Lewis, Wyndham 68
Lewitt, Sol 101
Liebeskind, Daniel 102
Locke, John 1 14
Laos, Adolf 105
Lorca, Federico Garcia 4, 15
Lowell, Robert 15
Lu Xun 74
141
I NDEX
Lukacs, Georg 47, 48, 49, 69-71,
73, 74, 76, 1 17, 125
Luxemburg, Rosa 90, 125
Lynch, David 103
Lyotard, Jean-Francois 24-36,
44-45, 46, 53-55, 57, 64, 92,
106
MacEwan, Malcolm 22
Machado, Antonio 4
Machiavelli, Niccolo 114
McLuhan, Marshall 1 8
Mac-Mahon, Marie Edme 128
Mainardi, Patricia 106
Mallarme, Stephane 104,
125-126, 128-131
Malthus, Thomas 126
Mandel, Erest 52, 72-73, 78,
125-126
Mann, Thomas 85
Mao Zedong 8-10, 90
Marcuse, Herbert 69-70, 71
Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso 15,
89
Marx, Karl 8, 25, 27-28, 45, 47,
85, 1 14, 125, 126
Melanchthon, Philip 114
Melville, Herman 7
Menger, Karl 126
Michael, Walter Benn 61
Michelangelo ( Buonarroti) 114
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig 20
Milken, Michael 86
Mills, C. Wright 12
Monnet, Jean 85
Montaigne, Michel de 1 14
Moore, Charles 23, 52, 102, 108
More, Thomas 1 33
Morris, Robert 96
Motherwell, Robert 83
Nahas, Mustafa 17
Nehru, Jawaharlal 8
Neruda, Pablo 4, 11, 15
NeuLetReuieu 54
Nietzsche, Friedrich 25, 65
Nixon, Richard 16, 86
ctober 106
O'Hara, John 85
Olson, Charles 7-12, 15-17, 18,
44, 75, 95, 137
Onis, Federico de 4, 19-20, 23,
102
Ortega y Gasset, Jose 4
Owen, Robert 42
Owens, Craig 106
Parsons, Talcott 25
Payne, Robert 8, 9
Perelman, Bob 103
Perkins, David 102
Pevsner, Nicholas 21
Platonov, Andrei 104, 133
Pound, Ezra 7, 11, 12
Frevert, Jacques 104
Proudhon, Pierre Joseph 130
Proust, Marcel 74, 93, 103
Pynchon, Thomas 18
Rauschenberg, Robert 17-18, 95,
101
Ray, Satyajit 121
Reagan, Ronald 32, 80, 91,
92-93, 104, 135
Riboud, Jean 8
Ricardo, David 126
Rilke, Rainer Maria 103
Rimbaud, Arthur 12, 1 6, 85
Robespierre, Maximilien 102
Rodchenko, Alexander 104
Rogers, Richard 23
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano 7
Rorty, Richard 103
Rosenquist, James 96
142
l
I
'
Rossi, Aldo 108
Rossignol, Jean 130
Rothko, Mark 2 7, 83
Rudolph, Paul 52
Ruskin, John 21, 103
Sartre, Jean-Paul 47, 68, 69-70,
74, 76, 85, 130
Schmitt, Carl 39, 40, 1 34
Schumpeter, Joseph 85
Scully, Vincent 52
Sembene, Ousmane 74
Shakespeare, William 114
Sidky, Ismail 17
Simon, Claude 103
Sjahrir, Sutan 8
Siemon, Stephen 119
Smith, Adam 126
Smithson, Robert 96
Snow, Michael 24
Sokurov, Alexander 103
Salas, Humberto 74, 1 10
Sontag, Susan 67
Soseki, Natsume 74-75
Spanos, William 16
Sprinker, Michael 76
Stalin, Josef 90
Stallabrass, Julian 122-123
Stein, Gertrude 15
Steinberg, Leo 96
Stella, Frank 101
Stern, Robert 21
Stravinsky, Igor 60
Strindberg, August 103
Tafuri, Manfredo 53
Tahimik, Kidlat 75, 124, 129
Tanaka, Kakuei 86
Tate, Allen 15
Tatlin, Vladimir 104
Terry, Quinlan 42
I NDEX
Thatcher, Margaret 91, 135
Thompson, Edward 22
Tinguely, Jean 18
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
130
Touraine, Alaine 25
Toynbee, Arnold 5-6, 13, 24
Triffn, Helen 119
Trotsky, Leon 117
Truman, Harry 8
Unamuno, Miguel de 4
Vallejo, Cesar 4
Vallotton, Felix 130
Van Gogh, Vincent 60
Vasari, Giorgio 98
Venturi, Robert 20-22, 42, 52,
106
Vuillard, Edouard 130
Walras, Leon 126
Warhol, Andy 18, 20, 60, 67, 96,
99, 100, 103-105
Weber, Max 39, 62, 84-85, 87
Weiss, Peter 4 0
Wiener, Norbert 11
Williams, Raymond 64, 103, 122
Williams, William Carlos 11, 15
Winstanley, Gerard 1 14
Wittgenstein, Ludwig 25, 26, 39,
40
Wollen, Peter 70-71, 83, 97,
104-105, 106-107, 1 1 8,
Xie, Shaobo 120
Yang, Edward 75, 123
Yeats, William Butler 12
Zayyat, Latifa 17
143

Anderson, Perry Origins of Post Modernity

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Jc |ICIns C!

Vc owc thc conagc

THE ORI GI NS OF POSTMODERNI TY

anccnt culturcs, Nayan or prc-Socratic, rcgarding thc brth o!

The Active Society, New York 1968, pp. vii, 528.

brcak-down oI an cnIccblcd poctc orthodoxy n thc

dcvotcd a doublc-ssuc to 'Charlcs lson. Rcmnsccnccs,

nantly through ths prsm. Jhc stratcgc rolc Icll to vanguards

cc|cctcra||cry, thc rchncdprurcnccoIour borrowcd plcasurcs

defunct. Chrstan redempton, Inlghtenment progress,

truth, i ustce, beauty. ]he other was the releaseofthe potenta!

In dong so, t met the hrst two challenges of the indust ; .:

a humanecty that were mpractcable. ]he very dea of a cty

rated nto the metropols, and as tme went on, prolferating

T/ePolitical Unconscious, Ithaca 1981, pp. 19-20.

was topcal. lthc

Postmodernism, pp. 317.

cmcrgc transIormcd on thc sdc. A totalzng comprehension

nsttutons nwhch no changc sccms possblc and thc dca oI

Marxism and Form cndcd by obscrvng that a ncw knd oI

Marxism and Form, p. 105.

Jhis was a morc plausiblc rcading. ut

'thc suprcmc stylist oIthcm all `.utthcrc arc timcs when

II, in all thcscways,]amcson`swork appcarslikc a grandiosc

cally, t was n ths perod, when most ofthe great experments

si ns oI a largcr changc that supcrvcncd wth thc

eltng`s constructon - ths s ts

once theoretcally proscrbed by t. a renstatement of cth

' On Cultural Studies', Social Text, No 34, 1993, p. 51 .

Paper at conference on postmodernism held at Changsha, Hunan, i n June 1997.

oievc and ukuyama to an unschcdulcd tcrmnus.'

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