An interview in Social Text with the philosopher of postmodernism, Frederic Jameson. He is revisiting his notes on postmodernism in lieu of the digital age and clarifies his thoughts on historocity.
"As for other features, one of the things I have written about is the effects on temporality. The French have invented this word presentism — I don’t like it very much, but it fits. I have written a lot about the disappearance of history, of historicity, about the becoming simulacrum of the past, the reduction to the present. I also call it a reduction to the body, because if you’re in the present that’s really all you have. This has its effect on all kinds of artistic forms, which used to be able to draw on longer and larger temporalities but which now seem incapable of doing that. I have given the example of action films, but there could be many other examples."
This is pertinent to my Inland Empire work as I am seeking to understand how prevasive a-historical thinking is amongst the working class.
Nico Baumbauch, Frederic Jameson, Damon young and Genevieve Yue, "Interview with Frederic Jameson 2014", contributed by Andrew McGrath, Center for Ethnography, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 12 December 2018, accessed 25 May 2024. https://www.centerforethnography.org/content/interview-frederic-jameson-2014
Critical Commentary
An interview in Social Text with the philosopher of postmodernism, Frederic Jameson. He is revisiting his notes on postmodernism in lieu of the digital age and clarifies his thoughts on historocity.
"As for other features, one of the things I have written about is the
effects on temporality. The French have invented this word presentism — I
don’t like it very much, but it fits. I have written a lot about the disappearance
of history, of historicity, about the becoming simulacrum of the past, the
reduction to the present. I also call it a reduction to the body, because if
you’re in the present that’s really all you have. This has its effect on all
kinds of artistic forms, which used to be able to draw on longer and larger
temporalities but which now seem incapable of doing that. I have given the
example of action films, but there could be many other examples."
This is pertinent to my Inland Empire work as I am seeking to understand how prevasive a-historical thinking is amongst the working class.