Signatures of the Visible

Fredric Jameson

Psychology Press, 1992 - Literary Criticism - 254 pages

"The visual is essentially pornographic," writes Fredric Jameson, "films ask us to stare at the world as though it were a naked body." In Signatures of the Visible, one of America's most influential critics explores film and the culture surrounding it, interrogating the relationship between the imaginative screen world and the historical world onto which it is projected. By seeking the historical dimension of the visual, Jameson evaluates the power of the filmic form as a vehicle for the critique of culture and the diagnosis of social life. Jameson pursues this investigation through readings of politics, class, allegory, magic realism, and "the historical" in such films as Diva, The Shining, and Dog Day Afternoon. Throughout the book, he is concerned with the relationship between the achievements and limits of contemporary film theory itself, "a relationship," he argues, "which allows one to take the temperature of history itself."

What people are saying

Review: Signatures of the Visible

User Review  - William West - Goodreads

Jameson isn't capable of being un-interesting, but I did not find this o be equal to his strongest works.

Review: Signatures of the Visible

User Review  - Pejman - Goodreads

with his rhetoric, Jameson always amazes me. In this book, he develps his previous discussion by contextualising his term 'political unconscious' in some films.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture 1979: 9
• Class and Allegory in Contemporary Mass: 35
• Diva and French Socialism 1982: 55
• Historicism in The Shining 1981: 82
• Allegorizing Hitchcock 1982: 99
• On Magic Realism in Film 1986: 128
• The Existence of Italy: 155
• Notes: 231
• Index: 251

About the author

Fredric Jameson is Director of the Graduate Program in Literature at Duke University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Signatures of the Visible; Film studies / Critical theory; Film studies: Critical theory
• Author: Fredric Jameson
• Publisher: Psychology Press, 1992
• ISBN: 0415900123, 9780415900126
• Length: 254 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General; Performing Arts / Film & Video / History & Criticism