On Jameson's Culture Theory Of Late Capitalism

Frederic. Jameson is the one of the most crucial figures in contemporary Marxist and post-modern theorists.In his Marxism and Form: Twentieth Century Dialectical Theories of Literature which was written during 1970s, Jameson made systematical arguments on Hegelian and Marxist dialectic. In the meantime, basing on the tradition of"western Marxism", Jameson applied dialectic to literary criticism and pointed out the distinguished theory of"dialectical criticism", illustrating the elementary characteristics of dialectic in dimensions of objectivity, subjectivity and history.Since 1980s, Jameson's theoretical interest has been changed from literary criticism to culture studies. Also he participated in the debate of the issues about modernity/post-modernity and modernism/post-modernism. In Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Jameson advanced a systematical theory about the basic characteristics of the post-modern culture and defined it as an absolutely new cultural system which was based on the social foundation of"late capitalism".On this basis, Jameson tried to reconstruct Marxist culture theory in the context of"late capitalism", that is, to interpret the contemporary culture systematically with the traditional Marxist categories of economic infrastructure/superstructure and mode of production/ideology.In this paper, I will connect Jameson's dialectical criticism and culture theory on"late capitalism", and through this I will manifest the crucial significance of dialectic in the development of Jameson's theory.Finally, I will interpret Jameson's overall understanding of Marxism and thus locate Jameson's position in the project of adjusting Marxism to the contemporary world.