Valences of the Dialectic

After half a century exploring dialectical thought, renowned cultural criticFredric Jameson presents a comprehensive study of a misunderstood yet vitalstrain in Western philosophy. The dialectic, the concept of the evolution of anidea through conflicts arising from its inherent contradictions, transformedtwo centuries of Western philosophy. To Hegel, who dominated nineteenth-centurythought, it was a metaphysical system. In the works of Marx, thedialectic became a tool for materialist historical analysis.

Jameson brings a theoretical scrutiny to bear on the questions that havearisen in the history of this philosophical tradition, contextualizing thedebate in terms of commodification and globalization, and with referenceto thinkers such as Rousseau, Luk?cs, Heidegger, Sartre, Derrida, andAlthusser. Through rigorous, erudite examination, Valences of the Dialecticcharts a movement toward the innovation of a “spatial” dialectic. Jamesonpresents a new synthesis of thought that revitalizes dialectical thinking forthe twenty-first century.

Fredric Jameson is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University. The author of numerous books, he has over the last three decades developed a richly nuanced vision of Western culture’s relation to political economy. He was a recipient of the 2008 Holberg International Memorial Prize. He is the author of many books, including Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, The Cultural Turn, A Singular Modernity, The Modernist Papers, Archaeologies of the Future, Brecht and Method, Ideologies of Theory, Valences of the Dialectic, The Hegel Variations and Representing Capital.