Neo-Marxist thinker's work debated at literary forum meet

Amritsar, November 16

Naad Pargaas, a literary forum, hosted its monthly ‘Bibek Gosthi’ organised for researchers and students of Punjabi language and literature. A discussion around the famous neo-Marxist thinker Fredric Jameson’s major book ‘The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act’ was held. The book is related to socio-political and psychological studies, in which serious concepts like neo-materialism with reference to the unconscious ideological forces, discourse-creative forces and neo-Marxism are presented as a form of research at the philosophical level. In this book, Jameson, by promoting materialism instead of formalism, tries to reveal such forces working behind the creation of work of which contemporary thought remains unconscious. It was discussed in context to Punjab and Punjabi literary works.

Dr Halwinder Singh, a senior researcher and scholar from New Delhi, presented his research paper on the book. In the beginning of his dissertation, he highlighted Jameson’s contribution to the field of literary and philosophical studies and the main factors behind his writing of the book. “As a Marxist thinker, Jameson not only makes thought possible as a support for universal truth, but also presents original research in materialist thought, which tends to include socio-historical studies as well as linguistic and psychological thought,” said Dr Halwinder Singh.

According to Halwinder Singh, for the education of a thinker like Jameson, students of Punjab need to understand German idealist philosophy and the thinking of leading psychoanalysts like Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. At the end of his research paper, he presented the possibilities of relevance of Jameson’s research in academic practice, especially in Punjabi literary thought. He said that Jameson’s psychoanalytic thinking can be used as a research method in Punjabi literary historiography.