In The Political Unconscious, Fredric Jameson uses Freudian concepts such as repression and projection to explore literary texts as attempts to deal with capitalism’s contradictions. Casting fantasy as the “vehicle for our experience of the real,” Jameson addresses some simplistic excesses of other Marxist scholars who have unduly disparaged the importance of culture. He suggests […]
Redefining the Commonwealth
Politics on the American left has recently consolidated somewhat, split off primarily into realpolitik Democrats and a cultural-left coalition of issue or identity-based activists. Sweeping ideological positions have been decimated by principled and pragmatist critique. But in the dawn of what may become a period of unprecedented deprivation and instability, I propose a macroscopic response: […]
Relative Freedom
I am an art teacher at Bowen High School, a neighborhood school on 89th Street in the South Chicago neighborhood. I have full-time employment, health benefits, and a reasonable amount of autonomy. What’s more, I respect and appreciate the people I work with—both adults and adolescents—and I have found and integrated artwork that reflects my […]