Abstract
This is an edited book to which prominent internationally known scholars, critics, and architects have contributed essays. It uniquely opens the question of the political in discourse of architecture. It opens up the significance of the contribution of the prominent American cultural and literary critic Fredric Jameson to the field of architecture in the last thirty years. A conference was held in the city of London in 2012 at Bartlett school of architecture discussing the significance and contribution of this book to the field of architecture and critical theory.
This publication was not funded by any institution.
It was reviewed in the prestigious Journal Radical Philosophy in London.
It has been favourably received and endorsed by scholars and critics at Harvard University in the US, Michael Hays, and in England by Gail Days at the University of Leeds.
"In architecture discourse, Fredric Jameson is usually associated with its now-classic construction of the postmodern as a cultural dominant. That concept, however, is only part of Jameson's vast theoretical machinery, of which the political unconscious is the centre, and in which architecture has the important social function to represent historical and technological forces that might otherwise remain undetectable. With luminous scope and impressive depth, this collection insists on the fuller significance of Jameson's thought for architecture. It is important for anyone interested in progressive thinking about cultural practice."
Bringing together a team of leading scholars, philosophers, critics, including Slavoj Zizek, Joan Ockman, Kojin Karatani, Jane Rendell among others, this book critically examines the important contribution made by Jameson to the radical critique of Architecture over the period of thirty years, highlighting its continued importance to contemporary architecture discourse. My book breaks new ground in architectural criticism and offers insights into the interrelationship between politics, culture, space, and architectural and, in doing so, it acts as a counter-balast to the current trend in architectural research where general aestheticization dominates the discourse.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The political unconscious of architecture |
Subtitle of host publication | re-opening Jameson's narrative |
Editors | Nadir Lahiji |
Place of Publication | England |
Publisher | Ashgate Publishing Limited |
Chapter | 10 |
Pages | 209-232 |
Number of pages | 24 |
Edition | 1 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781283163576 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781409426394 |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |