Source
<p>Social Text</p>
Contributor(s)
Critical Commentary
<p>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.</p><p>"As for other features, one of the things I have written about is the<br>effects on temporality. The French have invented this word presentism — I<br>don’t like it very much, but it fits. I have written a lot about the disappearance<br>of history, of historicity, about the becoming simulacrum of the past, the<br>reduction to the present. I also call it a reduction to the body, because if<br>you’re in the present that’s really all you have. This has its effect on all<br>kinds of artistic forms, which used to be able to draw on longer and larger<br>temporalities but which now seem incapable of doing that. I have given the<br>example of action films, but there could be many other examples."</p><p>This is pertinent to my Inland Empire work as I am seeking to understand how prevasive a-historical thinking is amongst the working class.</p>