Fredric Jameson, The Art of Criticism No. 5

"I quite dislike method—or distrust it, let's say."

View this email in your browser As Benjamin Kunkel notes in his introduction to his interview with the great Marxist literary critic Fredric Jameson (1934–2024), "Jameson was a reluctant interviewee, no doubt for reasons he explained in a 2006 essay, 'On Not Giving Interviews': the form tended to transform universal concepts into mere personal opinions, and encouraged an overall laxity of expression." Still, Jameson did agree to several conversations with Kunkel on Skype in late 2023, the results of which—evasive and revealing by turns—can be read in our new Winter issue. Among the topics under discussion: spy fiction and other popular "stuff," the feeling that we don't have a politics, and how he would rewrite Kunkel's first and second questions. Subscribe now to continue reading our interview with Fredric Jameson alongside our interviews with Hanif Kureishi and Gerald Murnane, which also appear in our new Winter issue. Copyright © 2025 The Paris Review. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: The Paris Review 544 West 27th Street 3rd Floor New York, New York 10001 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe, if you must.