Postmodern urban imagery erases class relations and production from its aestheticized surface
Evidence
It is a selective landscape that we see. The facts of production, and the necessary class relations that attach thereto, are noticeable by their absence. We are treated to a picture of the urban that is, in the fashion of postmodern sociology, entirely declasse, much closer to Simmel (in his ‘Metropolis and Mental Life’ essay) than to Marx. Death, birth, anxiety, pleasure, loneliness”are all aestheticized on the same plane, empty of any sense of class struggle or of ethical or moral commentary. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1998
Categorization
- XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s Jameson comparison — the declasse, Simmel-not-Marx depiction of the urban is a core target of Harvey’s materialist critique; connects to Jameson’s claim that postmodernism empties out historicity. — connects to: Postmodern urban redevelopment coincides with deepened inequality and infrastructural decline — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 581; Postmodern architecture debates are aesthetic mystification masking socioeconomic causes — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 583; Postmodern architecture’s surface fascination masks underlying conflicts between place-rootedness and cosmopolitan style. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 548 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Postmodern nature imagery memorializes a nature already systemically eliminated by capitalism
#corroborates(0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 396 - Postmodern culture is essentially visual with a slack and flabby linguistic element
#expands(0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 652 - Postmodernity erases the boundary between commodity and its image
#expands(0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 605 - Postmodernism replaced temporality with space and rejected phenomenological perception
#expands(0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 331