Unfinished Business: On the Dialectic of the University in Late Capitalism

A significant trope that appears throughout Jameson’sValences of the Dialectic(2009) is that of the “unfinished.”Valencesis itself something of an unfinished book, a claim that may come as a surprise to many of the book’s readers. At 625 pages, it is Jameson’s longest book yet, nearly 200 pages longer than his two prior books,Archaeologies of the Future(2005) andThe Modernist Papers(2007). Like these predecessors,Valencescombines previously published essays and some significant original work. Of the book’s six long sections, the first two, “The Three Names of the Dialectic” and “HegelWithout Aufhebung, ”