Blog
In Memoriam: Fredric Jameson, 1934-2024
From FHI Director Ranjana Khanna:
At the Franklin Humanities Institute, we are profoundly saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague Fred Jameson. There is no one who has shaped the Humanities at Duke more than Fred. He has exemplified rigorous research, deep and expansive reading, commitment to the small and large scales of literature, art, film, architecture, theory and philosophy—or more generally, ways of being in the world. Most famously he gave us ways of understanding capitalism through the forms it creates. His cultivation of curiosity, expansive mode of thinking, seemingly endless body of knowledge, and his legendary hospitality will be sorely missed. His joyful and generous approach to his own scholarship and to that of others call on us not to be melancholic, but to continue with the work of thinking through our life-worlds individually and collectively. In that spirit, we bring you this video of his presentation for FHI on the occasion of winning the Holberg Prize in 2008.