Late Marxism

Inthe name of an assault on totalization and identity, a number ofcontemporary theorists have been busily washing Marxism's dialecticaland utopian projects down the plug-hole of postmodernism and post-politics. A case in point is recent interpretation of one of thegreatest twentieth-century philosophers, Theodor Adorno. In thispowerful book, Fredric Jameson proposes a radically different readingof Adorno's work, especially of his major works on philosophy andaesthetics: Negative Dialectics and Aesthetic Theory. Jamesonargues persuasively that Adorno's contribution to the development ofMarxism remains unique and indispensable. He shows how Adorno's work onaesthetics performs deconstructive operations yet is in sharpdistinction to the now canonical deconstructive genre of writing. Heexplores the complexity of Adorno's very timely affirmation ofphilosophy of its possibility after the end of grand theory. Aboveall, he illuminates the subtlety and richness of Adorno's continuingemphasis on late capitalism as a tot