| This dissertation focuses on the theory of multi-totality by Fredric Jameson, the famous western Marxist, from the perspective of traditional epistemology of totality, disclosing his absorption and incorporation of the theories of Hegel, Marx, Sartre, Lukacs, and Althusser. It explicates his analysis and judgment of postmodern culture and literature, theories of literary criticism, and definition and comment of the third world literature. It refers to and draws on the brilliant and enlightening relevant interpretations and criticisms of Jameson’s theoretical construction of multi-totality and criticism of cultural and literary texts, expounding the significance and guidance of totality theory on his unique theoreical system and fruitful criticism.The vicissitudes of history has made Jameson keep the powerful sense of mission of rejuvenating Marxism in his long and productive academic career. The overwhelming tide of capital globalization,great leap forward of science and technology, violent impact of postmodern culture, emergence of brand new media technology and cultural forms, these all pose serious challenges for the explanatory ability of Marxism. Totality is its living soul, as Marxism is a theory that has vigorous vitality and marvelous adaptive capacity. It is the basic methodology to understand and grasp the world, the secret of retaining youthful vigor. It provides us with dialectic and comprehensive instruction and guidance, enabling us to adapt to the constant change of society and history.Hegel points out the dominance of totality over all parts, which exists in every part, being the integration of all of them, as well as the dialectic law of the negation of negation. These have offered Jameson the perfect perspective of viewing the protean cultural phenomena, and apprehending the common nature, as well as the high confidence of debating in the theoretical controversies, observing and explaining the latest cultural changes, aptly absorbing and incorporating the theoretical resources of various schools, great ambition for constructing the multi-totality theoretical system with great explanatory ability.Marx makes a deep disclosure of the exploitative essence of capitalist mode of production, the root of alienation, which confirms the historically advanced nature and necessary existence of capitalistic social system as compared with the former ones, and at the meaning time, incontrovertibly proves that it is against the totality existence of people. The capitalist mode of production propels the development of social productivity in the constantly deepening splitting and alienation, and prepares human race for the final ideal totality society in both aspects of material and spiritual. Jameson considers mode of production as the ultimate code for the understanding of capitalist social and cultural phenomena, relates different forms of cultural logic with the different stages of capitalist mode of production, and pins his hope on the third world cultural logic of totality for the overcoming the crisis of capitalist alienation.Lukacs emphasizes that it is totality that essentially distinguishes Marxism from all the other theories, while uniting it in the three aspects of ontology, teleology, and methodology, and pointing out that we must observe the relation of production from the perspective of totality, which will enable us tohold a historical and critical view on the capitalist mode of production, especially the potentiality of radical change contained in the seemingly perfect relation. He thinks of proletariat ideology as the highest level of the development of absolute spirit, the formation of which is of vital importance for the criticism of capitalist social system. Jameson agrees with this kind of viewpoint, and takes it as his basic stand for interpreting capitalistic culture. It is also emphasized by Jameson and taken as the basic standpoint for explaining the cultural logic of capitalistic culture, who endeavors to analyze the collective ideology of a society, aiming at awakening the revolutionary collective ideology to reach the purpose of resisting capital globalization.Sartre cites his mental activity as the solid evidence for his own existence, upon which he establishes his theory of existentialism, with bold questioning and challenge of the inherited ideas and traditions, being determined to become a complete individualist without any prejudice or restriction. He believes in the totality methodology, considering the individual’s constant self negation and construction as the source of meaning and value. His dialectical totality theory focuses on the concrete practice of an individual, instead of the abstract and static attributes of social relations, where the individual is the subject of the dialectical process of constant self negation. Jameson adheres to his critical spirit and heritage of totality theory, his positive attitude towards the criticism of society and culture. He upholds the flag of Marxism, the absolute horizon of dialectical totality, which is superior to all the other theories and mindsets, explaining the social and cultural phenomena with the totality of the mode of production, retaining the vitality of theory and ultimately approaching the truth in the ceaseless process of totalization and negation.According to Althusser’s conception of structural totality, it exists in the structure, therefore the pursuit of the only essence of matters is but an illusion, due attention must be paid to the inherent regulations of and interrelation between elements in the process of development. Jameson unites language and totality in the concept of history, with Althusser’s structural Marxism playing the mediating role, and inferring that it is through the text which is suppressed by ideology that we approach history and truth. As a matter of course, he confines his study in texts, replacing the intervention and impugnation of reality with the interpretation and criticism of literary and cultural texts.He fights shoulder-to-shoulder with the postmodernists in the forefront of text criticism, however consciously keeping the distance between theory and reality.He adheres to the basic theoretical positions and principles of Marxism, the epistemology of totality, emphasizing the dominant role of totality over its parts, the singular essence and ultimate perspective, analyzing the complicated cultural and literary phenomena of the late capitalist society,aiming at disclosing the mode of production as the determinant. Jameson attributes the development of literature and culture to a certain identical nature, interpret all the literary and cultural phenomena with the ultimate code of mode of production, considering literature as the suppressing strategy and artistic expression of collective ideology.He aptly absorbs and incorporates the contemporary rich and colorful theoretical resources, with his ingenious interpretation and elaboration, fitting them into his peculiar theoretical construction by means of bold collage and adaptation, recognizing their partial validity, incorporating them into his enormous theoretical system, while insisting on the supremacy of the principle of Marxist totality, the conflict and gulf between the theoretical discourses reflecting the characteristics and revelation ofpostmodernist culture. He sets postmodern culture and literary works as his target of criticism, and proves the great vitality and productivity of Marxism in today’s world by his innovation in theory.He classifies capitalistic culture into the three stages of realism, modernism, and postmodernism, in view of the development of capitalistic mode of production, while advancing his famous notion that postmodernism is the cultural logic of late capitalism. He makes a detailed analysis on the features of postmodernism, judgement and countermeasures of postmodernism under the guidance of Marxism,pointing out its deep social and historical origin, making the gnomic diagnosis and planning for it with his Marxism. He asserts that our world is already in the time of postmodernism, the only way out is the systemic anti-systemization. Till then, he has clearly realized the trend of self dissolution, the elements of deconstruction inherent in the construction of a system. Identity and diversity constitute the indispensible poles of totality, while construction and deconstruction are the complimentary opposites of totalization. The due attention to either part will guarantee the grasp of the essence and nature of totalization.He coins the concept of political unconscious, and makes a further exploration on such literary terms as inner form, utopia, vigorously pushing Marxist literary theory to a new height. He makes a bold use of Freud’s achievements of psychological analysis, and applies it into the realm of social collective, with his invention of political unconscious which is a concept referring to the collective subconscious in the interpretation of literary texts, combining the experience of an individual with the fate of social and historical totality, implementing his principle and stand of recognizing the law of society and history by means of totality. He puts psychoanalysis approach into social collective conscious activities, revealing the suppressing strategy of ideology, and digging out the suppressed subconsciousness.He insists on the fundamental stand and principle of Marxist literary criticism, the decisive function and role of content over form, and explores deeper into its source, elaborating on inner form on the basis of former studies, and putting forward his important viewpoint of the mutual transformation of content and form, considering both of them as inseparable, interrelated and reciprocal parts, which together constitute the totality of literary work. He highly emphasizes the formative and decisive function of society and history over the form of literature, as well as the social content that determines the literary form, the especially close relationship between literary works and language used in social communication and history, therefore, social and historical content may be regarded as inner form of literary works. The social content has been formed before the creation of literary works, as an inherent part and a prerequisite of the concrete form. The task of a writer is to put it into reality according to the requirements of inner form, who is expected to play the role of a tool or method.This kind of seemingly radical viewpoint is relevant to the subversive reflection on the subjectivity of authors by deconstructionists and postmodernists, the undeniable formative function of society and history as the source of creation material and the totality of text over the formation of concrete literary works, each and every writer refers to and takes advantage of the texts created by others to a certain extent, obliged to use words and letters which are the tools for communication and expression,processing and transforming the materials provided by society and history, as the mouthpiece and prolocutor for history and culture. To put it into a simple sentence, all texts are the product of history and culture.He proceeds with his opinion that all the texts are ultimately political, and literature as the artistic expression of a language, embodies the ideological struggles between different classes, giving way to their political ambitions and ideals. History and politics are the ultimate horizon for the reading and interpretation of literary texts, all the literary phenomena and theories will find appropriate explanation in the historical totality.Jameson believes that the grasp of the hitorical totality and the planning of the future totlity belong to utopia. Marxism is a dialectic and totality theory on the human liberation and social and historical development, with its focus on the status and role of people in the historical totality, the grasp of it, and planning of the trend and direction, characterized by utopia.History is a kind of existence of totality, in which people gradually acquire complete and objective knowledge about the truth of history in the constant process of totalization. Although people have no way to get full grasp of the past, present and future of history, they are endowed with the powerful weapon of totality approach, enabling them to catch a glimpse of the total history through the comprehension of part of the truth. Marxism takes totality for its epistemology and methodology,historic totality for its subject of study, final freedom and overall development for ideal, dialectical totality of double negation for the characteristics of practice and revolution. As the grasp and comprehension of part of the truth of history, literary texts somehow express the imagination of and impulse to realize utopia.Jameson endeavors to become a world class intellectual, bearing in mind the ideal of universal perspective and cosmopolitanism. He has an insight into the alienation and fission between individuals and that between individual and community in the capitalist society, considering the literature of the third world, including China, as the other distinct from the first and second world. He conceits that the individual and society has not been separated from each other in the third world, with the individual experience and national fate bound together, personal stories can be viewed as the allegories about the fate of collective and nation. As an obsolete literary form in western literature history, allegory has been rejuvenated in the third world literary context. This kind of imagination is tinted with west-centrism,resting the hope of overcoming the alienation, which is deep-rooted in the west, on the third world culture, which has already been alienated, while comparing the west, especially U.S., to slave owner,third world to the timid, subject slave, with superiority. He claims that realism, including modernism,has become out of date. The third world can do nothing but accept the colonial rule of postmodernism represented by the culture of the United States, capitalist globalization is embodied in the total invasion and ruthless assimilation by the cultural capital of the west, U.S. in particular. It is not without evidence that he has returned to the metaphysical tradition of west-centrism, keeping himself locked up in the prison house of language.Jameson is an outstanding western Marxist with acute problem awareness, intense sense of the times and historical responsibility. He holds on to the tradition of western Marxism, principle and stand of totality, absorbing and adapting the theoretical resources with great ingenuity, keeping an eye on the latest trend of times. He considers the mode of production as the dominant interpreting code, aiming at the politicized interpretation of literary and cultural texts, with his theory characterized by the interwoven multi perspectives and the juxtaposition and collage of diverse texts, establishing his unique western Marxist criticism. We cannot castigate his natural superiority of American culture, as well as hiswest-centralism. It is worth mentioning that his theory is in the tension of systemization and anti-systemization, with his harsh and objective criticism on postmodernism and his proud as a theorist in the center of the postmodern society, as well as his ambition for globalization that has taken hold of him. What we can do now is to face his contribution to theory, be vigilant against stereotype of oriental culture and history, which is very common among western scholars. The rejuvenation of Chinese nation,as well as the development of the third world literature and culture depend on our endeavor and creation,instead of the sympathy and pity of the first world experts and learners. Totality is of great importance for his methodology, as well as the principle and stand of his epistemology about the nature of matters.We must object to the metaphysical totality, and advocate the totalization, which acquires affirmation in constant negation. That is the revelation on us by Jameson’s totalizing methodology, the wellhead of the vigor of Marxism, and theoretical foundation for an open total theory. |
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