‘The Masses Make History’: On Jameson’s Allegory and Ideology
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Published:2020-12-21
Issue:1
Volume:29
Page:134-150
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ISSN:1465-4466
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Container-title:Historical Materialism
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language:
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Short-container-title:Hist. Mater.
Affiliation:
1. Professor of Critical Theory, Department of Humanities, University of Chichester Chichester UK
Abstract
Abstract
This essay responds to Frederic Jameson’s Allegory and Ideology by arguing that this book is centrally concerned with the masses. By developing Jameson’s own model of allegorical reading, the pressure of the masses on the text is explored. This is demonstrated through a reading of Albert Camus’s The Plague, Jameson’s central example of ‘bad’ allegory. While this novel is ‘bad’ for implying a one-to-one allegorical relationship between the plague infection and the Occupation of France during World War Two, or to the human condition, a reading of the text as biopolitical allegory reveals the complex presence of the masses. Finally, this response considers the ‘immortality’ of the masses as the utopian moment traced within Allegory and Ideology.
Subject
General Economics, Econometrics and Finance,History,Sociology and Political Science,Political Science and International Relations,Social Sciences (miscellaneous)