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    After Year Zero

    On Postwar German Thought

    Author Fredric Jameson
    Edited by Carson Welch
    Paperback
    $29.95 US
    Verso Books | Verso
    6"W x 9-1/5"H | 13 oz | 24 per carton
    On sale Sep 15, 2026 | 304 Pages | 9781836744023
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    Jameson's legendary lectures on German thought, brought together in one volume for the first time.

    In this series of accessible lectures, Fredric Jameson explores German philosophy and critical theory as it de­veloped in the wake of World War Two. Focusing on key thinkers — Horkheimer, Adorno, Heidegger, Habermas, Marcuse, Beuys, Enzensberger, Kluge, and Sloterdijk — Jameson weaves close readings of texts with anecdotes and aperçus to craft a narrative about the uses of the­ory. He delves into world-historical phenomena, such as the legacy of Nazism and the formation of the European Union, in a story that stretches from the postwar division of Germany to its reunification at the end of the Cold War.

    After Year Zero is a vital account of the German critical tradition, as understood by the “most significant Marxist thinker in American culture.”
    "Jameson is one of the world’s most eminent cultural theorists, but he is also a peerless literary critic in the classical sense of the term."
    —Terry Eagleton

    "Probably the most important cultural critic writing in English today. It can be truly said that nothing cultural is alien to him."
    —Colin McCabe

    "The most significant Marxist thinker in American culture."
    —Cornel West

    "Jameson has long been the most alluring American literary theorist, the only one to match the French in style and depth."
    —Angela Woodward, Los Angeles Review of Books

    "Jameson thinks dialectically in the strong sense, in the way we are all supposed to think but almost no one does."
    —Michael Wood, London Review of Books
    Fredric Jameson is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University. The author of numerous books, he has developed a richly nuanced vision of Western culture's relation to political economy. He was a recipient of the 2008 Holberg International Memorial Prize. He is the author of many books, including Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, The Cultural Turn, A Singular Modernity, Archaeologies of the Future, Brecht and Method, Ideologies of Theory, Valences of the Dialectic, The Hegel Variations and Representing Capital

    Carson Welch is a doctoral candidate in Literature at Duke University. He is the editor of Fredric Jameson’s The Years of Theory: Postwar French Thought to the Present (Verso, 2024).
    Fredric Jameson View titles by Fredric Jameson
    Editor’s Preface

    Lecture 1
    8/24/2021
    [Introduction]

    Lecture 2
    8/26/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno]

    Lecture 3
    8/31/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno]

    Lecture 4
    2/2/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno]

    Lecture 5
    9/7/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno]

    Lecture 6
    9/9/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno, Heidegger]

    Lecture 7
    9/14/2021
    [Heidegger]

    Lecture 8
    9/16/2021
    [Habermas]

    Lecture 9
    9/21/2021
    [Adorno]

    Lecture 10
    9/23/2021
    [Adorno]

    Lecture 11
    9/28/2021
    [Marcuse]

    Lecture 12
    9/30/2021
    [Beuys, Mitscherlich, Haug, Backhaus]

    Lecture 13
    10/12/2021
    [Sohn-Rethel]

    Lecture 14
    10/14/2021
    [Bahro]

    Lecture 15
    10/19/2021
    [Bloch, Enzensberger, Negt, Kluge]

    Lecture 16
    10/21/2021
    [Negt and Kluge, Gadamer]

    Lecture 17
    10/26/2021
    [Gadamer, Blumenberg, Koselleck]

    Lecture 18
    10/28/2021
    [Gadamer, Koselleck]

    Lecture 19
    11/2/2021
    [Negt and Kluge]

    Lecture 20
    11/4/2021
    [Negt and Kluge, Weiss]

    Lecture 21
    11/9/2021
    [Bohrer, Kittler]

    Lecture 22
    11/11/2021
    [Kittler, Luhmann, Habermas]

    Lecture 23
    11/16/2021
    [Luhmann, Habermas, Sloterdijk, Rosa]

    About

    Jameson's legendary lectures on German thought, brought together in one volume for the first time.

    In this series of accessible lectures, Fredric Jameson explores German philosophy and critical theory as it de­veloped in the wake of World War Two. Focusing on key thinkers — Horkheimer, Adorno, Heidegger, Habermas, Marcuse, Beuys, Enzensberger, Kluge, and Sloterdijk — Jameson weaves close readings of texts with anecdotes and aperçus to craft a narrative about the uses of the­ory. He delves into world-historical phenomena, such as the legacy of Nazism and the formation of the European Union, in a story that stretches from the postwar division of Germany to its reunification at the end of the Cold War.

    After Year Zero is a vital account of the German critical tradition, as understood by the “most significant Marxist thinker in American culture.”

    Praise

    "Jameson is one of the world’s most eminent cultural theorists, but he is also a peerless literary critic in the classical sense of the term."
    —Terry Eagleton

    "Probably the most important cultural critic writing in English today. It can be truly said that nothing cultural is alien to him."
    —Colin McCabe

    "The most significant Marxist thinker in American culture."
    —Cornel West

    "Jameson has long been the most alluring American literary theorist, the only one to match the French in style and depth."
    —Angela Woodward, Los Angeles Review of Books

    "Jameson thinks dialectically in the strong sense, in the way we are all supposed to think but almost no one does."
    —Michael Wood, London Review of Books

    Author

    Fredric Jameson is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University. The author of numerous books, he has developed a richly nuanced vision of Western culture's relation to political economy. He was a recipient of the 2008 Holberg International Memorial Prize. He is the author of many books, including Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, The Cultural Turn, A Singular Modernity, Archaeologies of the Future, Brecht and Method, Ideologies of Theory, Valences of the Dialectic, The Hegel Variations and Representing Capital

    Carson Welch is a doctoral candidate in Literature at Duke University. He is the editor of Fredric Jameson’s The Years of Theory: Postwar French Thought to the Present (Verso, 2024).
    Fredric Jameson View titles by Fredric Jameson

    Table of Contents

    Editor’s Preface

    Lecture 1
    8/24/2021
    [Introduction]

    Lecture 2
    8/26/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno]

    Lecture 3
    8/31/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno]

    Lecture 4
    2/2/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno]

    Lecture 5
    9/7/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno]

    Lecture 6
    9/9/2021
    [Horkheimer and Adorno, Heidegger]

    Lecture 7
    9/14/2021
    [Heidegger]

    Lecture 8
    9/16/2021
    [Habermas]

    Lecture 9
    9/21/2021
    [Adorno]

    Lecture 10
    9/23/2021
    [Adorno]

    Lecture 11
    9/28/2021
    [Marcuse]

    Lecture 12
    9/30/2021
    [Beuys, Mitscherlich, Haug, Backhaus]

    Lecture 13
    10/12/2021
    [Sohn-Rethel]

    Lecture 14
    10/14/2021
    [Bahro]

    Lecture 15
    10/19/2021
    [Bloch, Enzensberger, Negt, Kluge]

    Lecture 16
    10/21/2021
    [Negt and Kluge, Gadamer]

    Lecture 17
    10/26/2021
    [Gadamer, Blumenberg, Koselleck]

    Lecture 18
    10/28/2021
    [Gadamer, Koselleck]

    Lecture 19
    11/2/2021
    [Negt and Kluge]

    Lecture 20
    11/4/2021
    [Negt and Kluge, Weiss]

    Lecture 21
    11/9/2021
    [Bohrer, Kittler]

    Lecture 22
    11/11/2021
    [Kittler, Luhmann, Habermas]

    Lecture 23
    11/16/2021
    [Luhmann, Habermas, Sloterdijk, Rosa]

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