Archaeologies of the future: the desire called utopia and other science fictions

Fredric Jameson

Verso, 2005 - Social Science - 431 pages

In an age of globalization characterized by the dizzying technologies of the First World, and the social disintegration of the Third, is the concept of utopia still meaningful?

Archaeologies of the Future, Jameson's most substantial work since Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, investigates the development of this form since Thomas More, and interrogates the functions of utopian thinking in a post-Communist age.

The relationship between utopia and science fiction is explored through the representations of othernessalien life and alien worldsand a study of the works of Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Kim Stanley Robinson and more. Jameson's essential essays, including "The Desire Called Utopia," conclude with an examination of the opposing positions on utopia and an assessment of its political value today.Archaeologies of the Future is the third volume, after Postmodernism and A Singular Modernity, of Jameson's project on the Poetics of Social Forms.

What people are saying

Review: Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions

User Review  - Sofia Samatar - Goodreads

Jameson is always readable, and offers some great insights on literary utopias. I found the essays in the beginning of the book more interesting than the literary analysis toward the end--I don't know ...

Review: Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions

User Review  - Scott Neigh - Goodreads

Read partially for school. May go back and read it more thoroughly at some point, as there were some quite compelling bits, but not for the moment.

Contents

• III: 1
• IV: 10
• V: 22
• VI: 42
• VII: 57
• VIII: 72
• IX: 85
• X: 107
• XI: 119
• XII: 142
• XIII: 170
• XIV: 182
• XV: 211
• XVI: 235
• XVII: 237
• XVIII: 254
• XIX: 267
• XX: 281
• XXI: 296
• XXII: 314
• XXIII: 328
• XXIV: 345
• XXV: 349
• XXVI: 363
• XXVII: 384
• XXVIII: 393
• XXIX: 417
• XXX: 419

About the author

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Archaeologies of the future: the desire called utopia and other science fictions
• Author: Fredric Jameson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Verso, 2005
• ISBN: 1844670333, 9781844670338
• Length: 431 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern; Social Science / General