Narrative and History- A Critical reading of F.Jameson's "On Interpretation"

Abstract

This essay aims to read critically Fredric Jameson's essay "On interpretation", the first chapter of his seminal book, The Political Unconscious, in conjunction with a reading of de Man, focusing on the issue of the relationship between narrative (and more broadly, language) and history. Jameson's project in this essay is very ambitious to the extent that he attempts to incorporate all thinkable critical methods into his own suggestion of a new Marxian interpretation. This project is well summarized in his scandalous motto: "Always historicize! As is made explicit in this short dictum, the notion of history and historicity constitutes a point of departure for Jameson's work.