I find the widely cited concept of a "postmodern Marxist left" intellectually incoherent, mostly a right-wing canard flung by ppl who have read no Marx or pomo. Foucault & Fredric Jameson would surely agree. If you are a postmodern Marxist, please contact me.
Did you find out how he reconciled that with Marxism? Particularly Derrida's Spectres of Marxism?
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Oh, no. But there is a level on which it's all about tactics - the good old Gramscian "war of position" - which means that intellectual consistency can take a back seat in a pinch.
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Gramsci’s version of ‘my enemy’s enemy’ ;). Also, the Sokal Hoax was enormously embarrassing for the intellectual left qua intellectual left, even for those who loathed Derrida. No-one likes to be planted with a custard pie in public, it looks ridiculous.
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It wasn't embarrassing for those who had been trying to point out the problem with postmodernism for ages. It was very helpful.
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Marxists have long been a strident voice against postmodernism. eg, http://www.communistvoice.org/15cPostmodern.html …
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You can find plenty of Marxists who think that way, sure. But there are many who manage the emulsification process much more deftly: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Postmodernism-Cultural-Capitalism-Poetics-Social/dp/0860915379/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525377655&sr=1-1&keywords=jameson+postmodernism …
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I know about Jameson, obviously. First text I had to read but is he inspiring much of what is going on right now?
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Yes, sorry - of course you do! Don't know, to be honest. The alliances, such as they are, are more circumstantial and ad hoc. The point about Jameson is he proves it's a fusion that can also take place at an intellectual level.
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I will reread him with this in mind. I just don't think it is much in practice now. I'm also reading and editing a lot of the stuff that inspires SocJus and I'm not seeing much Jameson.
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