The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act
E653354
The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act is Fredric Jameson’s influential work of Marxist literary theory that argues all narrative texts are socially symbolic acts shaped by historical and ideological forces.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Political Unconscious | 2 |
| The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act canonical | 1 |
| political unconscious | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7284391 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act Context triple: [Fredric Jameson, notableWork, The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act]
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A.
The World, the Text, and the Critic
The World, the Text, and the Critic is a collection of essays by Edward Said that explores the relationship between literary texts, their historical and political contexts, and the role of the critic in society.
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B.
The Theory of the Novel
The Theory of the Novel is a seminal early 20th-century work of literary theory that analyzes the historical development and philosophical significance of the novel as a modern epic form.
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C.
Allegories of Reading
Allegories of Reading is a seminal work of literary theory by Paul de Man that explores the complexities of interpretation and rhetoric in texts by authors such as Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Proust.
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D.
The Nature and Aim of Fiction
The Nature and Aim of Fiction is an influential essay by Flannery O’Connor that explores what fiction is, how it works, and what purposes it serves in the writer’s and reader’s experience.
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E.
Time and Narrative
Time and Narrative is a three-volume philosophical work by Paul Ricoeur that explores how narrative structures shape human understanding of time and history.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act Target entity description: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act is Fredric Jameson’s influential work of Marxist literary theory that argues all narrative texts are socially symbolic acts shaped by historical and ideological forces.
-
A.
The World, the Text, and the Critic
The World, the Text, and the Critic is a collection of essays by Edward Said that explores the relationship between literary texts, their historical and political contexts, and the role of the critic in society.
-
B.
The Theory of the Novel
The Theory of the Novel is a seminal early 20th-century work of literary theory that analyzes the historical development and philosophical significance of the novel as a modern epic form.
-
C.
Allegories of Reading
Allegories of Reading is a seminal work of literary theory by Paul de Man that explores the complexities of interpretation and rhetoric in texts by authors such as Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Proust.
-
D.
The Nature and Aim of Fiction
The Nature and Aim of Fiction is an influential essay by Flannery O’Connor that explores what fiction is, how it works, and what purposes it serves in the writer’s and reader’s experience.
-
E.
Time and Narrative
Time and Narrative is a three-volume philosophical work by Paul Ricoeur that explores how narrative structures shape human understanding of time and history.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
work of literary theory ⓘ |
| approach |
historicizing interpretation
ⓘ
symptomatic reading of texts ⓘ |
| argument |
interpretation must restore the repressed historical context of texts
ⓘ
literary texts symbolically resolve real social and historical contradictions ⓘ narratives are shaped by historical and ideological forces ⓘ |
| author | Fredric Jameson ⓘ |
| centralClaim |
all interpretation should include a political and historical dimension
ⓘ
all narrative is a socially symbolic act ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| field |
critical theory
ⓘ
cultural studies ⓘ literary studies ⓘ |
| genre |
Marxist literary theory
ⓘ
critical theory ⓘ |
| impact |
helped establish Marxist criticism as central to literary theory debates
ⓘ
highly influential in Anglo-American literary theory ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Ernst Bloch
ⓘ
Georg Lukács ⓘ
linked to:
György Lukács
Karl Marx ⓘ Louis Althusser ⓘ Northrop Frye ⓘ Sigmund Freud ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
allegory of the social
ⓘ
history as ultimate horizon of interpretation ⓘ ideologeme ⓘ interpretive horizons ⓘ mediation ⓘ mode of production ⓘ political unconscious ⓘ socially symbolic act ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Marxism
ⓘ
hermeneutics ⓘ historical materialism ⓘ ideology ⓘ narrative theory ⓘ political interpretation of literature ⓘ |
| notableFor |
synthesis of Marxism, psychoanalysis, and structuralism in literary theory
ⓘ
systematic defense of Marxist interpretation of literature ⓘ |
| structure | multi-level hermeneutic model ⓘ |
| theoreticalOrientation |
Marxism
ⓘ
Western Marxism ⓘ psychoanalytic theory ⓘ structuralism ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act Description of subject: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act is Fredric Jameson’s influential work of Marxist literary theory that argues all narrative texts are socially symbolic acts shaped by historical and ideological forces.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Jameson
linked to: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act
The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act
→
keyConcept
→
political unconscious
ⓘ
linked to: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act
Late Marxism: Adorno, or, The Persistence of the Dialectic
→
relatedWork
→
The Political Unconscious
ⓘ
linked to: The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act