The Years of Theory: Postwar French Thought to the Present
Fredric Jameson, Verso, £20

THE great cultural theorist Fredric Jameson died in September last year aged 90. He was perhaps the most well-read person in the world. Concerning philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, cultural theory and Marxist dialectics, his range of knowledge was extraordinary. In The Years of Theory, his last book, what is also apparent is his masterful ability to convey ideas to students, to teach.

The Years of Theory is the transcript of a 2021 seminar on postwar French thought that Jameson gave remotely to graduate students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Interspersing his analyses of the great theoretical movements with personal biography and occasional fragments of gossip makes the abstractions he explores more vivid. 

With an apparent sense of the generation gap, and of differences in attention span between today’s young reader and former ones, Jameson skilfully lures his audience towards the ideas by showing their emergence from real and challenging circumstances: Althusser’s psychotic episodes and eventual murder of his wife; Derrida’s loyalty in visiting him in prison; Sartre’s squint, repellent appearance and eventual blindness are examples. The outcome is a masterful exploration of the major figures of French theory which is both stimulating and accessible. This brilliant book is a page turner – I loved it.