Postmodernistyczna wzniosłość wizualności. Na marginesach Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Fredrica Jamesona
Postmodernist Loftiness of Visibility. On the Margin of Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

Summary/Abstract: Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, monograph, to which the article is devoted, is regarded as one of the most important works of the American critic Fredric Jameson. The interpretation is based on the search for distinguishing features of postmodernist culture and esthetics, taking the category of loftiness into particular consideration. Jameson characterizes the essential role of this category for a new type of euphoric experience of the reality, which is rooted in contemporary visuality (hysterical sublime, decorative exhilaration, the waning of affect, postmodern intensities). Postcapitalist loftiness of form is constructed through antinomies: surface – depth, artificial kitch – loftiness, time dimension – spatial dimension, relations author – audience. These oppositions are showed in the context of examples taken from contemporary American art (among others: Robert Gober’s, David Salle’s). Further parts of the article are devoted to comparison Jameson’s depiction of loftiness (which results from involvment into exterior) with Lyotard’s idea of loftiness which is born where the measurements of the reality appear to be insufficient. Another figure of postmodern sensitivity is alegory, in Jameson’s depiction as well as in another theoretician of modern times – Ihab Hassan’s. Moreover, Jameson diagonises, fundamental to the American critics, role of Paul de Man’s analysis, especially in the context of innovative metaphor idea as a particulary suggestive mistake that underlies abstract thinking. In closing thesis, the author compiles postmodern definitions depicted by Fredric Jameson, Jürgen Habermas, Jean-François Lyotard and Ihab Hassan. Trans. A. Gierba

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