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The Future of Totality

Fredric Jameson and the Prospects of Critical Theory

Cover of The Future of Totality is a solid grey teal with a photograph of Fredric Jameson standing at a podium in front of a chalkboard that says ‘IDEOLOGY’.

Book

Pages: 360

Illustrations: 18 illustrations

Release Date: July 28, 2026

Editors: Nicholas Brown, Maria Elisa Cevasco, Fabio Akcelrud Durão, Robert T. Tally

Contributors: Ericka Beckman, Ian Buchanan, Clint Burnham, Gerry Canavan, Eric Cazdyn, Andrew Cole, Michael Denning, Richard Dienst, Aisha Karim, Eleanor Kaufman, Anna Kornbluh, Carolyn Lesjak, Sianne Ngai, Kim Stanley Robinson, Henry Schwarz, Alberto Toscano, Kathi Weeks, Phillip E. Wegner, Xudong Zhang

Following his death in 2024, Fredric Jameson’s vast body of work continues to challenge orthodoxies while retaining close ties to older critical and philosophical traditions, notably dialectical criticism, formal analysis, and utopian discourse. The Future of Totality brings together a selection of Jameson's former students and other prominent scholars thinking from Jameson, rather than writing on him, to represent future directions of Jamesonian thought in the tradition of dialectical criticism and cultural study. Through four sections reflecting and building on Jameson’s legacy, focusing on theory, critical reading of new forms, the reshaping of contemporary problematics, and new dimensions inspired by Jameson, The Future of Totality makes its own intervention about the continuity and innovation of Jameson’s contributions. Serving as both a tribute to the scholar and a space for thinking about the future of his work, these essays explore new and unforeseen dimensions to which Jameson’s work leads.

Praise

“This remarkable volume is jam-packed with intellectually thrilling work from many of the leading minds of our moment. In its brilliant and varied examinations of Jameson’s key arguments, concepts, methods, and style, we see the ongoing vitality of Jameson’s work and the amazing and indeed moving affection that so many of our best thinkers have for Jameson as a teacher, mentor, and writer.” - Jonathan Flatley, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago

“More playful than pious, these essays are must reads even for people who’ve never heard of Fredric Jameson, if any such people exist.” - Bruce Robbins, author of Who's Allowed to Protest?

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Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Author/Editor Bios

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Nicholas Brown is Professor of English and Black Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Maria Elisa Cevasco is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at the University of São Paulo.

Fabio Akcelrud Durão is Professor of Literary Theory at the State University of Campinas.

Robert T. Tally, Jr. is Professor of English at Texas State University.

Table Of Contents

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Foreword. Jameson Maestro / Kim Stanley Robinson  xi
Introduction. Writing from Jameson / Nicholas Brown, Maria Elisa Cevasco, Fabio Akcelrud Durão, and Robert T. Tally Jr.  1
Part I. Theory
1. Thresholds of the Concept / Sianne Ngai  17
2. Allegorical Mimesis of the Flowing of All Things: The Search for a Method in Fredric Jameson’s Brecht and Method / Xudong Zhang  28
3. Is Jameson’s Theory Althusser’s Philosophy? / Eleanor Kaufman  44
4. The Spatial Dialectic in Hegel; or, Asymmetries / Andrew Cole  67
5. The 1960s as a Vanishing Mediator; or, From the Symbolic to the Real in Fredric Jameson / Phillip E. Wegner  87
Part II. New Forms
6. Totality Desires: Psychoanalytic Dialectics in Jameson and Kiesling / Anna Kornbluh  113
7. Jameson, the Jukebox Musical, and the Postmodern Pastiche / Ian Buchanan  128
8. Big Marx Energy: Jameson’s TikTok Dialectics / Clint Burnham  144
9. Jameson as Blindspot Machine / Eric Cazdyn  160
Part III. The Present and the Future
10. Late Capitalist Scalings / Kathi Weeks  179
11. Unred: Poetics of Protofascism / Alberto Toscano  190
12. Utopia as Agility / Gerry Canavan  205
13. Toward a New Comparatism: “Third World Literature” Today / Ericka Beckman  221
Part IV. Extrapolations
14. A Diagnostic Criticism for the Twenty-First Century / Carolyn Lesjak  239
15. The Poetics of the Tax-Form / Michael Denning  257
16. The Contemporary Third-World Novel: Toward a New Humanity / Aisha Karim  278
17. Dialectical Criticism in a Era of Multinational Genocide / Henry Schwarz  298
Afterword. Lunch at the Savoy / Richard Dienst  313
Contributors  329
Index

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Additional Information

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Paper ISBN: 978-1-4780-3883-2 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4780-3396-7 / eISBN: 978-1-4780-6245-5 /