Blog post

The Jameson Reading Group

The Jameson Reading Group is a free program dedicated to exploring and popularizing the major works of Fredric Jameson. This project, which is being coordinated in partnership with Verso, Public Books, and the Aydelotte Foundation at Swarthmore College, is volunteer-run and open to all.

Dennis Hogan, Charlotte Rosen, Matthew Ellis, Tim Thomas, Mia Schatz, Andy Hines21 January 2025

The Jameson Reading Group

Each month this reading group selects a key text or problematic from Fredric Jameson’s work and reads about 100 pages together. We meet in a large Zoom meeting to hear from a scholar, writer, or thinker for whom Jameson has been a key influence. These guest speakers are not asked to lecture, per se, but to be in conversation about their own reading of the text, highlighting key moments, explicating subtleties, and suggesting questions for further dialogue in advance of small group discussion. We also encourage members to self-organize either in person or virtual satellite meetups.

Over the last several months, hundreds of us from around the world have met together to read Jameson’s work, hear from scholars, and offer our thoughts in conversation. Our first meeting explored A Singular Modernity with Anna Kornbluh and Kirk Boyle, followed by a look at The Political Unconscious with Sarah Brouillette and Mathias Nilges, and most recently a breakdown of An American Utopia and Archaeologies of the Future led by Alberto Toscano. An edited recording of our first meeting is available here.

Our next session will take place on Sunday, February 23rd at 2PM EST. We will be reading the introduction and first chapter from Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism; (ix - 55). With Kate Wagner and Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal joining us, we also recommend reading the fourth chapter, Architecture: Spatial Equivalents in the World System (97 - 130). PDF copies are available for those who RSVP.

While this list is subject to change, here is our current outline for future readings:

March: Totality and Conspiracy Geopolitical Aesthetic, Cognitive Mapping

April: Literature and FormAntinomies of Realism

May: Allegory - Allegory and Ideology

June: ConclusionYears of Theory

This page will be updated with video recordings and reading assignments as they become available. If you would like to be added to the group listserv, please send your name and email address to tim@versobooks.com.